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MEMORIALS 



OF 



The Life and Character 



OF 



STEPHES T. LOGAN. 



FabeT suae fortunae. 



SPRINGFIELD, ILL.: 

H W RoKKEE, Printer and Binder. 

1882. 



CONTENTS 



Biographical Sketch.... 3-18 

Posthumous Honoks— By Members of the Sangamon County Bar: 

Remarks of Hon. John T. Stuart 15-19 

Resolutions 19-20 

Remarks of Hon. Benj. S. Edwards 21-23 

Remarks of Governor Cullom 23-26 

Proceedings in United States Couet: 

Address by Hon. David Davis 27-31 

Response of Judge Thomas Drummond 31-34 

Action of the Common Council of the City of Springfield: 

Resolutions 35 

Remarks of Joseph Wallace, Esq 35-43 

Action of the Sangamon County Circuit Court: 

Remarks of Judge Charles S. Zane 44-50 

Address by General Bi'ayman 50-53 

Commemorative Proceedings in the Illinois Supreme Court: 

Presentation of Logan's Portrait by Hon. Milton Hay 54-55 

Mr. Browning's Address. 55-64 

Remarks by Hon. John D. Caton 65-67 

Judge John M. Scott's Address 68-71 

Chief Justice Dickey's Response, 71-74 

Press and other Obituary Notices: 

Illinois State Journal * 75-79 

Morning Monitor 79-83 

Illinois State Register 83-84 

Hon, Jas. C. Conkling's Tribute 84-87 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

OF 

Stephen T. Logm. 



STEPHEN Trigg Logan, the eminent subject of these 
memoirs, was born in Franklin county, Kentucky, on 
February 24th, 1800. His paternal ancestry were of Irish 
or Scotch-Irish extraction, his great grandfather having 
emigrated from Ireland and settled in Augusta county, 
Virginia, about the year 1750. On the maternal side, he 
was probably of English descent. 

His father, David Logan, is described as a man of plain 
manners, but of strong sense and sterling integrity. He 
died in Kentucky about 1821, in the prime of manhood. 

His mother's maiden name was Mary Trigg. She was 
the daughter of Col. Stephen Trigg, a native of the " Old 
Dominion," who came to Kentucky in 1779, and lost his 
life in the memorable and disastrous battle with the 
Indians at the Blue Licks, in August, 1782. 

His grandfather. Col. John Logan, was a man of much 
prominence and influence among the early pioneers of 
Kentucky ; and was a representative in the Virginia Legis- 
lature from one of the counties of Kentucky before the 



4 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

admission of the latter into the Union as a State. Subse- 
quently, he was a member of the convention which formed 
the Kentucky Constitution of 1799, and held during several 
years the honorable and responsible office of Treasurer of 
that Commonwealth. 

General Ben. Logan, elder brother of John, and grand 
uncle to our Logan, was the first of the family to remove 
from Virginia to Kentucky. He established the fort or 
station, known as " Logan's Fort," near the present town 
of Stanford, in Lincoln county, in 1776. He is described 
as a man of great activity and force of character, who 
figured conspicuously with Boone and other famous 
pioneers in the Indian wars of the period. Gen. Logan 
also held important civil positions, and died at an advanced 
age, highly respected and esteemed. His son, William 
Logan, was for many years a judge of the Kentucky 
Court of Appeals. 

In 1802, when Stephen T. Logan was but two years old, 
his parents removed from Franklin to Lincoln county, 
where his mother in a short time departed this life, leav- 
ing him half orphaned at a tender age. His father 
afterward married again, and by the second marriage had 
other children. 

Stephen T. received his early education in Frankfort, 
the capital of the Commonwealth and seat of justice of 
Franklin county. Here he was also employed as a clerk 
in the office of the Secretary of State, under Martin D. 
Hardin, a son-in-law of Gen. Ben. Logan, and father of 
Col. John J. Hardin, of Illinois. While in the discharge 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 



of his clerical duties, during the war of 1812-14, and when 
only thirteen years of age, he made out the commissions 
for the pfificers of Governor and General Shelby's com- 
mand, in the expedition of the latter to our northern 
frontier. 

As a boy, young Logan was remarked for the quickness 
of his parts, the strength of his understanding, and his 
rare aptitude for both study and business. With an early 
bent for the profession of the law, he went, in 1817, to 
Glasgow, the seat of justice of Barren county, and began 
the study of law under the tuition of his uncle. Judge 
Christopher Tompkins, (*) an eminent jurist of southern 
Kentucky, for whom he cherished a warm and reverential 
affection to the close of his life. 

Continuing his legal studies, Mr. Logan was admitted 
to the bar at Glasgow before attaining his majority, but 
did not at once engage in practice. In the meantime he 
supported himself by teaching school, and serving as a 
deputy in the Circuit Clerk's office of Barren county. In 
the latter position he made himself familiar with the 
various forms of legal procedure, and acquired much of 
that skill and facility in the drafting of legal documents 
for which he was noted throughout his professional life. 
Among his more immediate associates and contempo- 
raries, at the outset of his career as a lawyer, were 
Solomon P. Sharpe, B. M. Crenshaw, Joseph Underwood 
and Cyrus Walker — all young men cJf superior talents 

*The wife of Judge Tompkins was Theodosia Logan, a sister of 
David Logan, the father of Stephen T. 



6 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

and energy, who achieved high distinction not only at the 
bar, but in the pohtical arena. With such competitors 
as these to inspire his ambition, Logan entered the Hsts 
and began his struggle for fame and fortune. He speed- 
ily acquired business. 

Shortly after entering upon the regular practice of law, 
Mr. Logan was appointed Commonwealth's Attorney for 
the Glasgow Circuit, and discharged the delicate and 
responsible duties of his office with singular fidelity and 
ability. As a legal practitioner he early developed those 
peculiar traits which subsequently gave him such dis- 
tinction as a lawyer. His prompt and accurate knowl- 
edge of the principles of law, his care in the preparation of 
cases, his command over complicated facts, his analytical 
power in dealing with evidence, and, above all, his clear, 
incisive, animated style as a speaker, won for him in a few 
years an established reputation, and a lucrative clientage. 

On the 25th of June, 1823, Stephen T. Logan was united 
in marriage to America T. Bush, eldest daughter of 
William Bush, Esq., of Glasgow. Mrs. Logan was a 
lady of refined manners, of unaffected piety and unpre- 
tentious benevolence. She departed this life February 
24th, 1868, in the 62d year of her age. They had eight 
children — four sons and four daughters — only two of 
whom survive, namely : Mrs. Ward H. Lamon, and Mrs. 
L. H. Coleman. 

David Logan, their eldest child and son, was born in 
Glasgow, Ky., April 5th, 1824. He received his educa- 
tion for the most part in Illinois, read law with his father. 



MEMOIKS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 



was admitted to the bar in 1843 or '44, and practiced his 
profession for a few years in Springfield. In 1848, or 
thereabouts, he removed to Oregon, where he soon took 
high rank as a lawyer ; and, engaging actively in politics, 
was twice run as the candidate of the Eepublican party 
for Congress from that State. David Logan died near 
the town of Salem, Oregon, in March, 1874. 

William, the second son, was born in Glasgow, August 
nth, 1826, and died in Sangamon county, 111., in Sep- 
tember, 1832. 

Christopher, the third son, was born in Glasgow, 
December 23d, 1828. He was educated in Springfield, 
111., and upon reaching the age of manhood went to Cali- 
fornia, where he died July 30th, 1850. 

Stephen T., the fourth son, was born in Springfield, 
111., December 28th, 1840, and died December 24th, 1848, 
at the age of eight years. 

Mary, the eldest daughter, was born in Glasgow, Ky., 
August 18th, 1831. On June 11th, 1861, she was married 
in Springfield, 111., to the Hon. Milton Hay, and died 
here March 4th, 1874, leaving two children, named 
respectively, Katie Hay and Logan Hay. 

Sally, the second daughter, was born in Springfield, 
111., August 27th, 1834, and was married to Col. Ward H. 
Lamon on November 26th, 1861. They now reside in 
Denver, Colorado. 

Jennie, the third daughter, was born in Springfield, 



8 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 



111., February 19th, 1843, and married L. H. Coleman, 
Esq., on October 4tb, I860. They have four children, 
named respectively, Logan, Christopher, Mary and Louis. 
Kate, the fourth daughter, and youngest of the family, 
was born March 17th, 1845, in Springfield, 111., and was 
married to the Hon. David T. Littler, September 15th, 
1868. She died January 26th, 1875, leaving one child, a 
son, named Stephen. 

Stephen T. Logan continued the practice of his pro- 
fession in Barren and the adjoining counties of Kentucky 
for more than ten years, and until he had accumulated a 
respectable competency, but becoming embarrassed pecu- 
niarily, by loaning his credit to friends who failed in 
business, he concluded to seek a home in a newer State, 
where he might more easily retrieve his broken fortunes, 
and provide for the wants of his growing family. 

Accordingly, in the spring of 1832, at the age of 32, he 
removed with his family to Illinois. The journey was 
made by land, wth carriage and wagons, and was both 
long and tedious. They arrived in Springfield about the 
middle of May, and thence settled on a farm near the 
Sangamon river, some six miles north-west of the town. 
At this time Mr. Logan contemplated abandoning his 
profession, and devoting himself to agricultural pursuits, 
but his great talents were not destined to be thus buried. 
Early in the following spring, 1833, Mr. Logan, at the 
instance of William L. May, with whom he formed a 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T, LOGAN. 9 

partnership, came to Springfield, and resumed legal prac- 
tice. Of Mr. May it may be remarked in passing, that 
he was a gentleman of pleasing address, a fair lawyer 
and clever politician, who represented the Springfield dis- 
trict (then embracing the entire northern half of the State) 
in Congress from 1834 to 1838. The other resident law- 
yers of Springfield at this date were John T. Stuart, 
Jonathan H. Pugh, William S. Hamilton (son of Alex- 
ander Hamilton), James M. Strode, Thomas Neale, James 
Adams and Thomas Moffett. Of all these, Mr. Stuart is 
the sole survivor. 

After his permanent settlement here, Mr. Logan speedily 
acquired a leading position, not only at the Sangamon 
bar, but in the State at large, and until his final relin- 
quishment of his profession, his fame was ever on the 
increase. In January, 1835, he was elected by the Legis- 
lature Judge of the First Judicial Circuit of Illinois, 
embracing Sangamon county, and took the oath of office 
on the 24th of that month. He presided at the regular 
terms of the court until the March term, 1837, when, 
owing to the inadequacy of the salary, he resigned. In 
1839 he was again chosen Circuit Judge, but as the elec- 
tion was without his consent, he declined to serve. While 
on the bench, he fully illustrated all the essential qualities 
of judicial excellence, namely: thorough knowledge of 
the law, solidity of judgment, clearness of apprehension, 
promptness of decision, and a wonderful readiness in 
applying legal principles to complex transactions, and 
ever- varying facts. 



10 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

In 1842 Judge Logan was elected a representative in the 
Legislature from the county of Sangamon, and reelected 
in 1844 and 1846, serving throughout with great credit 
and ability. In 1847 he was chosen a delegate to the 
convention which formed the State Constitution of that 
year, and took a leading and influential part in the delib- 
erations of that important body. His efforts, both in the 
Legislature and in the Convention, were specially directed 
to securing economy in the public expenditures, and 
making adequate provision for the payment of the State's 
indebtedness — in each of which he was measurably suc- 
cessful. 

In 1848 he was the Whig candidate for Congress in the 
Capital District of Illinois ; but his party being under a 
cloud, in consequence of its opposition to the Mexican 
war, he was defeated by Major Thos. L. Harris, who had 
then freshly returned with military laurels won on the 
fields of Mexico. 

Judge Logan now withdrew from all active participa- 
tion in politics, and for a number of years succeeding, 
applied himself sedulously to his profession, being at this 
period in the midst of an active, diversified and lucrative 
business, both in the State and Federal courts. Upon 
retiring from the bench in 1837, his first law partner was 
Col. E. D. Baker. He was afterward associated (from 
1841 to 1844) with Abraham Lincoln, and, at a later 
period, with his son-in-law, Hon. Milton Hay. 

In 1854, Judge Logan was elected for the fourth time 
to the popular branch of the General Assembly. During 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. ll 

this session lie served as chairman of the Judiciary and 
other important committees, and was the author of sev- 
eral useful measures of legislation. In 1855 he was run 
as a candidate (though without his solicitation) for Judge 
of the Supreme Court for the Second Grand Division of 
Illinois, in opposition to Judge 0. C. Skinner, of Quincy. 

In May, 1860, he was a delegate from the State at large 
to the Chicago Eepublican National Convention, and with 
David Davis, Leonard Swett, Norman Judd, and a few 
other of the special friends of Mr. Lincoln, assisted in 
those skillful combinations which eventuated in the nomi- 
nation and ultimate election of the latter to the Presi- 
dency. 

Early in February, 1861, Judge Logan was appointed 
by the Governor of Illinois, (under a joint resolution of 
the Legislature) one of five commissioners to represent 
the State in the National Peace Conference, which met in 
Washington City on the 4th of that month. The object 
of this conference, as is known to all well-informed 
readers, was to devise certain amendments to the Federal 
Constitution, which it was hoped, if adopted by Congress 
and the several States, w^ould restore peace to a deeply 
agitated country, preserve the Union, and avert the 
calamities of the civil war then impending. Logan's 
colleagues in the conference were John Wood, John M. 
Palmer, Burton C. Cook, and Thomas J. Turner. 

Judge Logan took an active and distinguished part in 
the deliberations of this historic assembly, and favored 
an honorable compromise between the Northern and 



12 MEMOIES OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

Southern sections of the Union. The following extract 
from a private letter by the Hon. W. S. Groesbeck, of 
Ohio — himself a prominent member of the same body — 
to a gentleman in Springfield, shortly after Logan's 
decease, shows the high estimation in which the abilities 
and services of the latter were held by his associates in 
the conference : 

" I first met him (Logan) in the Peace Conference of 
1861. He was a leading member of that body, and came 
to be beloved by all of us. It could not be otherwise. 
While he was true to his convictions, he was conspicuous 
as a patriot and peace-maker. You may be aware that 
the speeches made in that Congress were not reported or 
preserved. I think this is to be regretted, for some of 
them were very eloquent, and would have been historic. 
Judge Logan, as the friend of President Lincoln, was 
often heard, and always with profound interest. I recall 
one of his speeches, made toward the close of our con- 
ference, and when we were feeling very much discouraged. 
I will not undertake to give you any part of the speech. 
It was a grand, patriotic appeal. It touched every heart ; 
it moistened nearly every eye. I have not met Judge 
Logan since that day, but if I were to live an hundred 
years I would not forget him." 

Judge Logan's service in the Peace Conference was the 
last of his public and official employments. He now 
retired from political life, and gradually withdrew from 
the pursuit of his profession, but continued to closely 
observe passing events, and took a lively interest in what- 
ever concerned the welfare of his State and the country 



MEMOIES OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 13 

at large. His last public appearance was in 1872, when 
be was unanimously chosen to preside over the Kepub- 
lican State Convention of that year. On taking the chair 
on that occasion, he made a short speech, which was 
characterized by much of his earlier fire and fervor of 
style. 

The evening of his days was passed in dignified retire- 
ment, surrounded by his family, and in the enjoyment of 
the ample estate which he had amassed by his industry, 
economy and foresight. His death occurred after a brief 
yet painful illness, at his residence in Springfield, on 
July 17th, 1880, at the age of eighty years, four months 
and twenty- two days. 

His funeral took place from the family residence on 
Monday, the 19th of July. It was simply, yet appropri- 
ately, conducted, and was very numerously attended. 
Prominent among those present were distinguished men 
of the bench and bar from all portions of the State, 
among whom were Senator Davis, Judge Drummond, 0. 
H. Browning, Judge Wm. Thomas, and others, the San- 
gamon Bar, who attended in a body ; the Governor and 
other State officers ; the judges and officers of the various 
courts ; the Mayor and members of the City Council ; 
and the Board of Managers of Oak Eidge Cemetery, of 
which Logan was for some years a member and pretident. 

The religious services were conducted by Elder J. B. 
Allen, of the Christian Church, assisted by the Rev. F. 
H. Wines. The pall-bearers were Hon. David Davis, 
Hon. Thomas Drummond, Hon. Samuel H. Treat, Hon. 



14 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

0. H. Browning, Hon. William Thomas, Hon. John T. 
Stuart, Governor Cullom, ex-Governor Palmer, Judge 
J. M. Scott, and Judge C. S. Zane. At the close of the 
services at the mansion, the remains of the venerable 
barrister and jurist were conveyed to Oak Eidge Ceme- 
tery, and deposited in the family lot by the side of his 
wife. 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 15 



POSTHUMOUS HONORS. 



EULOGIES AND RESOLUTIONS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE 

SANGAMON COUNTY BAR ON THE DEATH OF 

HON. STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 



ON July 19th, 1880, at 10 o'clock a. m., (the day of Judge 
Logan's obsequies) pursuant to notice, the members 
of the bar met in the Circuit Court room, in the city of 
Springfield, to give fitting expression to their sorrow at 
the loss of their eminent brother. On this melancholy 
occasion there was a large attendance of the local mem- 
bers of the bar, and a number of distinguished gentlemen 
of the legal profession from other parts of the State. 
ex-Governor John M. Palmer called the assemblage to 
order, and on his motion the Hon. John T. Stuart was 
chosen to preside. Upon taking the chair, Mr. Stuarc 
impressively spoke as follows : 

remarks of HON. JOHN T. STUART. 

This meeting has been called for the purpose of taking 
some action in relation to the death of our distinguished 
friend and brother, Stephen T. Logan. It is eminently 
proper that we, the members of the Sangamon county 
bar, should gather around his bier, and do what we may 



16 MEMOIES OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

to embalm his memory. Stephen T. Logan was no com- 
mon man ; he was no ordinary lawyer. He began his 
career as a lawyer at this bar in the year 1832. He 
was then thirty-two years of age, in the prime of intel- 
lectual vigor. He had practiced his profession in his 
native State for ten years previous, and brought with him 
to the State of his adoption no mean reputation as a 
lawyer. He came to seek a new home in this, our then 
infant, State, where he might mend his financial condi- 
tions then overburdened with security debts. In the long 
life now just closed — a life of honorable labor in his pro- 
fession — by his economy and forecast he won both fame 
and fortune. 

In his active career as a practitioner at this bar. Judge 
Logan had to struggle with very able competitors. He 
won fame and fortune, not by contests with feeble or 
unskilled antagonists, but with foemen worthy of his 
steel. 

The Sangamon bar, during that active period of his 
professional life, was composed of members— many of 
them of rare intellectual ability and legal attainments, 
stars in their profession, a galaxy rarely equalled, not 
often surpassed. Among the dead of these, were Lincoln, 
Douglas, Shields, McDougal, Baker, Lamborn, Strong, 
Bledsoe, Forquer, Pugh — all known to fame, and some of 
reputation world-wide. To say that Stephen T. Logan 
was the equal of these would be saying much, yet I hazard 
nothing in saying here that, as a lawyer, he was the equal, 
if not the superior, of them. In some one or more of 
these, some one intellectual power might be selected in 
which he may have had superiors, but when one com- 
bined all the mental qualities and attainments necessary 
to equip an able practicing lawyer, in my opinion he was 
the superior of any of them. He was well grounded in 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 17 

the law as a science. He saAV the strong pomt in his case, 
or the weak one of his opponent, with intuitive vision, 
discarding all issues intended to mislead an opponent. 
The rapidity of his intellectual perceptions were like 
flashes of lightning. In his arguments to the court 
he stated his point logically and tersely, and to its 
enlightenment. 

In his arguments to the jury he maintained the same 
ierse logic, the same hugging of the point of his case, but 
super- adding a mesmeric force often overwhelming. 

Logan, in his office, w^as the just, ripe and safe coun- 
sellor, grasping with readiness the facts of the cases 
submitted to him, separating the truth from the coloring 
given it by the passion of the client, and readily seeing 
the point in the case, he was able to give sound advice, 
which his sense of justice directed to the right. He was 
not a promoter of litigations. He settled more contro- 
versies than he brought suits. He was a peace-maker. 

Logan was industrious, painstaking, economical, studi- 
ous, temperate, moral. He never offended the moral 
sense of community by outrages against good morals and 
taste, sometimes mistakenly thought to be the accom- 
paniment, if not the evidence, of genius. He was a good 
citizen, as well as an able lawyer. 

Stephen T. Logan, without his solicitation or knowl- 
edge, was twice elected Judge of the Circuit Court, an 
office which he held but a short time, the practice of his 
profession being more congenial to his taste, as well 
as more lucrative. He was elected by the county of San- 
gamon more than once to the House of Eepresentatives 
of the State Legislature, and once to the Constitutional 
Convention, and he carried into all tbese public services 
—2 



18 MEMOIKS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

great ability, industry and patriotism, to the entire satis- 
faction of his constituents. He but once participated in 
any National service — being a member of the Peace Con- 
gress of 1861. He took with him into that body the same 
noble characteristic that marked him in his law office, — 
that of the peace-maker. He there delivered himself of 
a speech, as represented to me by persons who heard 
it, of wonderful force and power, fairly electrifying his 
audience. But he failed in his effort to make peace 
between the different sections of the Union. Party feel- 
ings, sectional animosities, if not the decrees of Provi- 
dence, were too strong for him — he failed; and he, 
perhaps, has never received here the credit due to his 
holy effort, but up yonder, before the Great White Throne, 
where he has gone, I hope and believe, he will have the 
blessing promised the peace-maker. 

Judge Logan, nearly twenty years since, having then 
acquired wealth, retired from practice to a life of dignified 
leisure. I think in this he made a mistake. A man of 
his ability best discharges his obligation to the commu- 
nity, and best , consults his own happiness, by continuing 
to labor in his profession or business as long as he has 
the ability. 

The younger members of this bar, who knew not Logan 
as a practicing lawyer, and have only seen him as he 
walked the streets in his slow, listless and unostentatious 
way, cannot realize him as possessed of the ability which 
we, the older members, describe. In person he was of 
small stature. He discarded the ornamentations of dress. 
Nature had not given in his person any indication of 
his talent, except in his deep-set, penetrating eye, which 
when aroused fairly blazed ; but we, the older members, 
knew his power because we have often felt it. The younger 
may not fully sympathize with the older members of this 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 19 

bar in the desire to emblazon, record and perpetuate the 
ability and fame of Stephen T. Logan. But the fame of 
its great lawyers — its Logans, its Lincolns, its Bakers, 
its Douglases and others — is a part of the history of the 
Sangamon bar, and of Sangamon county, and as such it 
belongs to us. It is a part of my property and of yours, 
and all should spare no pains to keep it bright. It is not 
only the present property of us all, but to the young it is 
a stimulant and example. 

These men supplemented their native talent by labor, 
temperance, morality, preservance, and a strong sense of, 
and adherence to, the right, and their example teaches 
that by the use of the same means every young lawyer 
here may win the same renown which they have won, and 
sit down with them in that temple of fame which they 
have built for the Sangamon bar. 

At the close of Mr. Stuart's remarks. Col. William L. 
Gross and C. C. Brown, Esq., were selected as secretaries 
of the meeting. 

Thereupon Governor Cullom moved that the chair 
appoint a committee of three, of which ex-Governor 
Palmer should be chairman, to draft and report resolu- 
tions expressing the sense of the meeting relative to the 
demise of Judge Logan. The motion prevailed, and the 
chair appointed as that committee, ex-Governor Palmer, 
Governor Cullom, and Henry S. Greene, Esq., and they 
retired. 

On the return of the committee, ex-Governor Palmer 
reported the following : 

RESOLUTIONS. 
Resolved, That the bar of Spring-field has heard with profound sen- 
sibility of the death of Stephen T. Logan, who was, during nearly 
half a century, one of its most distinguished members, possessed at 
once of analytical ingenuity, ripe scholarship, aud resources for any 



2U MEMOIKS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

emergency. The contemporary of lawyers and jurists like Lincoln, 
Breese, Cyrus Walker, Archibald Williams, Justin Butterfield, Brown- 
ing, Douglas, Baker and Hardin, in an equal degree with the greatest 
of his compeers, he adorned the profession by his learning and probity, 
and stood by common consent at the head of the bar of Illinois. 

Resolved^ That we regret in the death of our lamented brother, not 
only the loss of a distinguished lawyer, but also an illustrious citizen 
of the State, who, by his energy and ability, contributed mvich to its 
material prosperity, and by his wisdom as a legislator, and inflexible 
integrity as a judge, was instrumental in giving to person and prop- 
erty the protection of wise laws, wisely and honestly administered. 

Resolved, That in the death of Stephen T. Logan we also lament 
the loss of a neighbor, who was always kind, and a friend whose 
memory will be held sacred by the entire community, which has often 
been benefited by his advice and instructed by his wisdom. 

Resolved, That this bar will manifest its regret for the memory of 
the deceased, and its sympathy with his bereaved family, by wearing 
the usual badge of mourning for thirty days ; and that we will attend 
the funeral of the deceased in a body. 

Resolved, further, That the Hon. David Davis, a life-long friend 
and professional associate of the deceased, be requested to present 
these resolutions to the United States Court, now in session, and that 
the chairman of this meeting be requested to present the same to the 
Sangamon County Circuit Court, and that he appoint sonae member 
of this bar to present them to the Supreme Court of the State, and 
ask that they be spread upon the records of the several courts. 

After the reading of the resokitions, Governor Palmer 
addressed the meeting in a few impromptu remarks, 
replete with striking thoughts, in which he paid a just 
tribute of praise to the deceased Logan as a lawyer, a 
citizen, and a man, and as an example to young lawyers 
of energy, industry and conscientious discharge of duty. 

Judge B. S. Edwards seconded the adoption of the 
resolutions, and with emotion said : 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T, LOGAN. 21 

REMAEKS OF HON- BENJ. S. EDWARDS. 

Friend after friend departs. Of the lawyers practic- 
ing at this bar in 1840, when I commenced, I only remain 
in active practice. Many are dead, and others have 
retired or engaged in different pursuits. Hon. John T. 
Stuart was in Congress from 1839 to 1843, and for the 
time had withdrawn from the courts. Of the other resi- 
dent lawyers, Logan, Thomas, Baker, Douglas, Lincoln, 
Strong, and shortly after 1840, McDou.al, Bledsoe and 
Lambourn, were the most prominent. These are now all 
dead. All .were great, though each with peculiar charac- 
teristics, both in public and private relations. 

I entered the law office of Stephen T. Logan in Jan- 
uary, 1840, to complete my professional studies, and from 
that time to his retirement, was on terms of intimate 
friendship with him. Associated with and opposed to 
him at different times in cases of great magnitude, civil 
and criminal, with full opportunity of observation, and 
with frequent necessity for preparation to meet his con- 
summate tact and eminent legal ability with any degree 
of success or credit, and after acquaintance for forty 
years with most of the great lawyers of this State, 
and many from other States, I do not hesitate to say he 
was the ablest lawyer I have ever known. Thoroughly 
versed in the principles of the law, familiar with their 
application in the books, and in the cases in which he 
had been engaged or the trials which he had witnessed, 
with an intellect capable of comprehending a case in all 
its fullness of circumstances, its probabilities or possi- 
bilities, while still retaining control of the smallest 
details ; a fine judge of men and the motives influencing 
them, instinctively discerning where was the right and 
justice of a controversy, fearless and independent in the 



22 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

presentation of his arguments, and gifted with the power 
to express his views with. logic seldom equalled, his posi- 
tion among his hrethren of the bar was always preemi- 
nent. While it is with his character as a lawyer that on 
this occasion he is prin -ipally to be spoken of, it would 
be unjust to his memory to omit one suggestion as to his 
use of the mfiuence which his legal attainments and his 
integrity as a man gave him. So great was his influence 
here, that "Logan's, opinion" would settle a controversy 
when other attempts had failed. Kespected and trusted 
by all, his influence and advice has in numerous instances 
quietly prevented the letting out of strife, or assuaged 
the fierce passions that would have induced or protracted 
litigation; has preserved harmony among members of 
families, who might otherwise have been perpetually 
estranged by the bitterness of a lawsuit. He never 
encouraged litigation, but as a friend and neighbor strove 
for the peaceful adjustment of all controversies. Those 
who knew him in his prime here at home will always 
remember him not only as a sound counselor, a fearless 
and able advo/jate, but as an honest lawyer, exerting 
himself to preserve peace and harmony among friends 
and neighbors. 

Our deceased friend attained his professional eminence 
in this State while he was poor His perseverance, sus- 
tained by ability and honesty, secured to him not only 
his high position, but an abundance of this world's 
wealth. He has died without a blot upon his reputation, 
mourned not only by his family and immediate friends, 
but by his professional brethren wherever he was known, 
and by his neighbors who knew him when he was young, 
and when age and infirmity had caused his retirement, 
and who have always honored him with well-deserved 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 23 



respect. He was a pure man, faithful and loving in all 
bis domestic relations. "The glory of his children will 
be their father." He was a just man. 

" This is true glory and renown when God, 
Looking on the earth, with approbation marks 
The just man and divulges him through heaven 
To all his angels, who, with true applause, 
Recount his praises." 

General John A. McClernand followed Judge Edwards 
lYi an extempore- address of some length, in the course of 
which he compared Judge Logan to John C. Calhoun, 
and expressed the opinion that if the former bad attained 
t) high political position he would have made as great a 
reputation as the latter, for the reason that he possessed 
an equally analytical mind, and had most of the other 
characteristics which rendered the South Carolina states- 
• man so famous. He further spoke in laudatory terms of 
Logan's speeches and conduct in the National Peace 
Conference. 

The last speaker to address the meeting was Governor 
Shelby M. Cullom. He eloquently said : 

remarks of governor cullom. 

Mr. Chairman : — I cannot permit this meeting to ad- 
journ before offering my tribute, poor as it may be, to the 
memory of that great man who has just passed away, 
and who was distinguished by his talents, his worth and 
his services to this community and State. 

Judge Logan is dead. Perhaps no one here regrets his 
death more than I do. Though more than thirty years 
older than myself, he was my friend. Many years ago, 
when I was but a small boy, I was taught to believe, what 
in after years from actual acquaintance I became con- 
vinced was true, that Stephen T. Logan was the ablest 



24 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

lawyer in the State of Illinois. It is not now the time nor 
the place to attempt an analysis of his character, or a 
minute portrayal of his great powers as a man, especially 
as exhibited in his chosen profession ; suffice to say, that 
I think it has long been admitted that when he was in the 
vigor of his manhood he was the superior of any man in 
the west, in the trial of a case. No man ever secured an 
advantage over him in the examination of witnesses 
before a court, or in seeing and seizing the strong points 
in a case. 

He had great power in presenting the points of a case, 
and never wasted time in preparing or supporting views 
not founded on sound reason and practice. 

Judge Logan was a man whose power of intellect and 
reason enabled him to live upon his own thoughts. He 
did not copy from the world either in manner or expres- 
sion. He was always himself, and absolutely without 
pretense or hypocrisy. 

There is an ancient maxim which forbids saying any- 
thing but good about the dead. I can obey it in speaking 
of Judge Logan without doing violence in the least to my 
sense of duty. There is nothing can be said of him 
that is not good. After a life of more than eighty years 
he passes away full of honors, with a name untarnished 
by any stain of wrong doing. No man in all the land can 
say that he ever did a dishonest act. What a blessing it 
is to a community, to a State, to a Nation, when the lives 
of its great men may be held up before the people for the 
closest scrutiny, to know that criticism will develop 
nothing but honorable dealings and doings all through a 
long and eventful life. 

Mr. Chairman, while it is not strange that this visita- 
tion of God's Providence has come and taken our friend 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 25 

from among the living upon earth, yet we cannot but 
pause, as we reahze that such visitations have come to us 
in Illinois in almost a remarkable degree. Few men who 
knew and worked with Judge Logan in the vigor of his 
manhood remain among us. 

Lincoln and Douglas, Breese, Baker, Walker and Wil- 
liams, McDougal and Butterfield, Hardin, Lockwood and 
Purple, and many other great men who made their 
impress upon affairs in their time, have all passed away. 
Nearly all the grand men who were prominently con- 
nected with the early history of our State, are no more. 
They gave direction and character to the institutions of 
our prosperous State, and in a degree to our Eepublic, 
and their names and deeds are recorded on the brightest 
pages of Illinois and National history. 

Judge Logan was not an indifferent man to public 
affairs. While the great part of his life's work was in the 
practice of law, which was more pleasing to him than 
other pursuits, yet, when occasion required, he did not 
shrink from public duty, and as Judge on the bench, as 
a legislator, or in the convention to form the, organic law 
of the State, he was second to no man ever associated 
with him. 

Judge Logan lived in the grandest period of the world's 
history. Beginning his existence with the beginning of 
the nineteenth century, what marvellous changes and 
progress he was permitted to witness. There have been 
periods in the world's history in which little was done to 
make them worthy of notice. Not so with the present 
century. It has l)een a period of great events, of great 
movements among the nations, of great inventions and 
great progress in improving the civilization of the world. 
No eighty years have produced greater things than the 
eighty in which our deceased friend lived. He witnessed 



26 MEMOIES OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

the growth of our own beloved land. He lived to see 
slavery abolished in the country. He lived to see the 
Nation grow from six or seven to more than forty-eight 
millions of free people. He lived to see our Eepublic 
tried as by fire and come out of a terrible civil war 
stronger than ever before. He lived to see our own com- 
monwealth increase in population from 155,000 to more 
than 3,000,000 of people, and its territory transformed, 
as it were, from a wilderness to a garden, and made to 
blossom as the rose. He lived to see the wonderful 
triumph of science and art as they have gone forward 
hand in hand lightening the burdens and lifting humanity 
upon a higher plane of existence. But, Mr. Chairman, 
I will not continue my remarks. Judge Logan is done 
with earth. We shall soon bear his mortal remains to 
the tomb. Though dead, he will not be forgotten. His 
memory will be fresh in the hearts of many people in 
this city and State, long after most of us shall have passed 
away. I second the resolutions offered by the gentleman. 

The resolutions were then unanimously adopted. 

On motion, ■ ex-Governor Palmer, Hon. Lawrence 
Weldon and Hon. Benj. S. Edwards, were appointed a 
committee to prepare a memorial of Judge Logan, to be 
presented to the State Bar Association ; after which the 
assemblage adjourned to meet in the United States Court 
room at 5 :30p. m. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE UNITED STATES COUET ON THE OCCASION 
OF THE DEMISE OF JUDGE S. T. LOGAN. 

At half-past five o'clock of the day of the meeting of 
the bar, the United States Court for the Southern District 
of Illinois, convened at the court room, in Springfield. 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 27 

Judge Thomas Drummond, of the Circuit Court, and 
Judge Samuel H. Treat, of the District Court, were 
on the bench. There was a full attendance of the 
members of the bar, and a number of others. In com- 
pliance with the request expressed in the resolutions 
adopted by the bar meeting, Senator David Davis now 
presented those resolutions to the court, and asked that 
they be spread upon the records. He prefaced their 
introduction with the following address : 

ADDRESS BY HON. DAVID DAVIS. 

May it Please Your Honors : — The custom of our pro- 
fession to meet together in order to pay tribute to the 
virtues of their deceased brethren, cannot be more appro- 
priately observed than on the occasion of the death of the 
lawyer and friend whom we have just buried in the 
beautiful cemetery adjoining this city. The bar of San- 
gamon county, where Stephen T. Logan lived for nearly 
fifty years, met to-day to bear witness to his life and 
character, and to testify their sense of personal bereave- 
ment in his loss. They have charged me with the duty 
of presenting to this court, where he practiced so long 
and successfully, their proceedings, and to ask that they 
be placed on the permanent minutes. 

Memories are busy with me to-day, for I am among the 
few lawyers now living who knew Judge Logan nearly 
forty-five years ago. The first time I saw him was in 
Springfield, in the autumn of 1835, when he was holding 
a term of the Sangamon Circuit Court. I had just come 
to the State, and was, naturally, desirous of observing the 
proceedings in the courts. Having pursued my legal 
studies in Massachusetts and Connecticut, I was impressed 
with the idea, that justice was administered in those 
States by magistrates who were superior to any I should 



28 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

meet in Illinois, and was, therefore, not prepared, at the 
outset, to have this opinion changed. I was a diligent 
observer of the manner in which the business of the court 
was conducted, and recollect very distinctly that Cyrus 
Walker and Henry E. Dummer — both eminent in their 
profession — were engaged in an important controversy, 
and discussed with signal ability some intricate points of . 
evidence. These were disposed of by Judge Logan with a 
clearness of statement and power of reasoning, that not 
only carried conviction to my mind, but satisfied me of 
the largeness of his capacity, and of his ability to dis- 
charge the duties of any judicial tribunal in the country. 
The admiration which I conceived for him then, instead 
of being diminished by the lapse of time, as often hap- 
pens, was increased as I knew him better, and observed 
the development of his marvelous powers. 

He did not remain long on the bench, but soon left it 
for the conflicts of the bar, which was a more congenial 
occupation to him. At this time, as now, some of the 
leading lights of the profession were located in this city. 
Among the number, besides Logan, were Lincoln, of mar- 
tyred fame ; Douglas, who died too soon for his country ; 
the gifted Baker, who fell at Ball's Bluff ; Treat, who has 
for so many years adorned the State and Federal bench ; 
Hewett, eloquent and persuasive, and my valued friend, 
John T. Stuart, who, as a lawyer and statesman, has 
rendered distinguished services to the State and Nation. 

Unlike some of these illustrious men, Logan preferred 
the contests of his profession to the excitement of politics, 
and, therefore, his reputation is local instead of national. 
In this State public opinion, during his long career at the 
bar, placed him at the head of it — what nobler ambition 
can a lawyer achieve. 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T, LOGAN. 29 

Although he rendered the State valuable service on the 
bench, in the Constitutional Convention of 1847, and in 
the Legislature, and endeavored to serve the Nation in 
the Peace Conference of 1861, yet his chief claim to dis- 
tinction rests on the fame which he obtained at the bar. 
T]aere he was at home, and, to say the least, confessedly 
the equal of any of his associates. 

The bar of Illinois, in the early days, no less than now, 
was distinguished for its ability and learning, and some 
of its members acquired a national reputation. Besides 
those I have mentioned, I can recall the names of Brown- 
ing, Bushnell and Williams, Hardin and McDougal, 
Walker and Dickey, Drummond and Caton, Jesse B. and 
William Thomas, Butterfield and Collins, Breese and 
Lawrence, Trumbull and Palmer, Binder and Ficklin, 
McClernand and Webb, Gatewood and Eddy, Thornton 
and John L. Brown, Purple, Manning and Hope. 

It is no disparagement to any of these eminent men — 
some of whom have passed beyond the reach of pruise or 
censure — to say that in legal power or capacity, not one 
of them was superior to Logan. Some of them had par- 
ticular powers which Logan did not possess, but in the 
general combination of essential qualities which go to 
make up the great lawyer, not one of them excelled him. 
Indeed, in all the elements that constitute a great tiisi 
prius lawyer, I have never known his equal. I loved to 
hear him try an important jury cause, and have quite 
often been surprised by the remarkable powers displayed 
by him, especially when he was hard pressed for victory. 
I will mention -one instance : In the winter of 1844-45, 
one Chapman was indicted for perjury under the Bankrupt 
law of 1841. The case excited a great deal of interest, for 
the reason that the party charged with the crime had 



30 MEMOIKS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

previously borne a good character, and because many 
persons believed a beneficient law had been repealed on 
account of the perjuries and frauds committed under it. 

Justin Butterfield was the prosecutor, and Logan and 
Lincoln defended. Your honors, and the other lawyers 
who hear me, will remember the intellectual power of. 
Butterfield, and he exerted all of it to procure a convic- 
tion.. As usual, when Logan was engaged in a case, no 
matter who was associated with him, the chief manage- 
ment of it was conceded to him. And he never appeared 
to better advantage than in this defense. The trial lasted 
several days, and the lawyers from abroad, as well as 
those living here, were attracted to the court room. 

The Legislature was in session, and though a member 
of it, I was so fascinated by the intellectual struggle that 
I heard the trial through, to the neglect of my official 
duties. Chapman was convicted, but I thought at the 
time the result would have been different had not the 
Judge charged so strongly against the prisoner. 

I shall not attempt on this occasion, may it please your 
honors, an analysis of the mental characteristics of 
Judge Logan. It would require, to do it properly, a little 
more thought than I have been able to give the subject 
since the request of the bar was communicated to me. 
Besides, your honors, before whom he has achieved some 
of his most important victories, are better able to analyze 
his character. 

Judge Logan was a devoted husband, tender father, 
faithful friend, good citizen, and sincere Christian. In 
his journey through life he encountered sorrows and 
griefs — and who is exempt from them? But he bore 
them with Christian fortitude and resignation. It is a 
sincere gratification that I retained his confidence and 
friendship while he lived, and on the announcement of 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 31 

his death I felt that a great shadow had fallen across my 
pathway in life. At a ripe old age, surrounded by his 
family and friends, with his mind unclouded, and the 
consciousness of a well-spent life, he crossed the great 
river, and, as I firmly believe, is now reunited in a 
heavenly sphere to the loved ones who have gone before 
him. 

May we all live so that when we come to die we may be 
as well prepared as he was for the great change that 
awaits us. 

Judge Drummond. in ordering the resolutions to be 
entered upon the record of the court, made the subjoined 
appropriate response : 

RESPONSE OF JUDGE THOMAS DRUMMOND. 

When a man so preeminent at the bar and on the bench 
as Judge Logan passes away, it is fit there should be pre- 
served on the enduring records of the court in which he 
practiced so many years, a memorial of the appreciation 
in which he was held as a man, a citizen and a lawyer, 
by those who knew him best, and are members of a com- 
mon profession. There need be no exaggeration of phrase 
in speaking of his superiority as a judge and lawyer. 
His endowments for these professions were unusual, 
and necessarily led to exalted rank in both. We each 
must speak of» him as we knew him. 

When I first met him, forty-five years ago, he was a 
judge of the circuit court of this State, He had 
exchanged with Judge Ford, and went into the latter's 
circuit, in the northern part of the State, in the summer 
and fall of 1835. He was the first judge before whom I 
appeared, and his was the first court in which I tried a 
case in the State of Illinois. I was engaged in several 



32 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

causes during the term, and was present, and an atten- 
tive observer of the manner in which he administered the 
law during the whole sitting of the court. 

From the time I was appointed a Judge of the Federal 
Court, in 1850, until the State was divided into two dis- 
tricts, in 1855, Judge Logan having previously left the 
bench, was a leading practitioner in the court. This, 
with an occasional connection with him in some cases in 
the Supreme Court of the State, and the hearing of a few 
arguments made by him in that court, constitute my per- 
sonal knowledge of him as a judge and a lawyer. 

The qualities, in my opinion, the most conspicuous in 
him, were great clearness of statement, a preternatural 
quickness of apprehension, extraordinary fertihty of 
resources, and a glowing, ardent nature, which almost 
compelled the tribunal he addressed to share in his own 
conviction. To these were added in exceptional fullness, 
the power of nice discrimination and cogent analysis, a 
true sense of the justice of the cause, and the capacity 
to reject all extraneous matter, and confine himself to the 
essential points in controversy. He was. besides, a ^road, 
comprehensive reasoner, never diffuse. 

These qualities fitted him peculiarly for the trial of nisi 
23rius cases, in which he was considered unrivalled. I 
do not think that in general he made great preparation 
for his cases, or studied them very elaborately. He often 
trusted with confidence to his resources at the time of 
trial, and these rarely failed him. Above all, though 
faithful in the utmost to the cause of his client, he was 
an honest lawyer, and true to the court, to which he left, 
after urging every argument which a fertile imagination 
and full knowledge could suggest, the decision of the 
cause, relying upon its real merits for success. 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 33 

Great, as he unquestionably was, as a mere lawyer, I 
have often regretted that he did not remain longer on the 
bench, and in the trial of nisi prius cases. From what 
I have heard, as well as from my own observation, it has 
always seemed to me that for such an ofiice his qualifi- 
cations were of the highest kind, amounting to genius in 
that department of the law. The impression he made 
upon me, as a young lawyer having his first experience 
in the State in his profession, has never been effaced. 

Judge Logan was not a distinguished politician. It is 
true he served in the Legislature of the State with emi- 
nent distinction ; but he can scarcely be said to have 
served the National Government. Perhaps he was by 
nature and temperament unfitted to become a successful 
politician. His fame must, therefore, rest on his reputa- 
tion as a jurist and a lawyer. 

When we see the death announced even of the most 
eminent "^in our profession, and a few lines only in the 
newspapers of the day devoted to their memory, we are 
apt to think that their fame and name will soon pass 
away. It is true that the lawyer has not the brilliant 
reputation of the successful military man, nor the fame 
of the distinguished statesman, but there is one class of 
the community, his own profession, with whom the repu- 
tation of a great lawyer never dies. His name, and his 
ability as a lawyer are registered in those volumes which 
contain the wisdom of the law. We are too apt to forget 
that the learning and ability which we find in the opinions 
of the court are often no more than the reflection of the 
arguments of the counsel who are engaged in the cause. 
And so, independent of the importance of the profession 
to which he belonged, and the interests of which it has 
the principal charge in protecting the life, liberty and 
—3 



84 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

property of the citizen, we may yet hope that the fame 
of the great lawyer may be perpetuated as well as that 
of the successful general or statesman. 

There is one remark I feel impelled to make about our 
friend who has passed away, and it is one the truth of 
which perhaps may not be admitted by many of those 
less familiar with his name and history. Judge Logan 
was not a man who "wore his heart upon his sleeve," but 
he was really, to those who knew him intimately, a man 
of warm affections. I must confess, although I have 
known him for so many years, still the principal cause 
which so early attached me to him was the conviction of 
this fact. 

His death cannot be said to be premature at any age 
who has finished his work. Judge Logan's birth takes us 
back to the last century, when Napoleon was First Con- 
sul in France, and John Adams was President of the 
United States. He has lived more than four score years. 
We have to-day peacefully laid him away in his mother 
earth, full of years and honors, amid the waving grass, 
the green tree^, and the fragrant flowers ; and, r^sting 
there, he has left a name and fame which are in them- 
selves a rich legacy to his family, to his profession, and 
to his State. 



action of the common council of the city of SPRINGFIELD 
RESPECTING THE DEATH OF HON. STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

The City Council of Springfield met in special session 
on the morning of the 19th of July, with Mayor H. C. 
Irwin in the cbair, to take some action in regard to the 
decease of the venerable Judge Logan. On motion, a 
committee was appointed, composed of Aldermen House, 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 35 

Eosette, and Wallace, (to which was added Mr. Harry C. 
Watson, the city clerk,) to jjrepare suitable resolutions to 
be presented to the Council at an adjourned meeting to 
be held on the evening of the same day. After voting to 
attend in a body the funeral of the deceased, the Council 
adjourned. 

At the evening session, the committee reported the 
annexed 

RESOLUTIONS : 

• 

Whereas, It has pleased our Heavenly Father, in His Divine 
wisdom, to call from the fields of active life, to the rest above, our 
old and well-beloved fellow-citizen, Judge S. T. Logan; therefore 
be it by the City Council 

Resolved, That we see in his decease that death loves a shining 
mark, and that our city has lost an upright and honored citizen, who, 
in all the varied positions of his busy, eventful life, has always been 
above suspicion and above reproach. 

Resolved, That society has lost one of its most honored, purest 
members, his family a kind and revered head, the bar one of its 
brightest lights, and we a citizen whose sudden demise leaves a void 
hard indeed to fill, and whose "footprints on the sands of time" 
teach us that by industry, honesty and perseverance, we too "may 
make our lives sublime." 

Resolved, That these resolutions be spread upon the records, and a 
copy transmitted to the city papers for publication. 

After the resolutions were read, Mr. Wallace, in second- 
ing the motion for their adoption, delivered the following 
memorial address : 

REMARKS OF JOSEPH WALLACE, ESQ. 

Mr. Mayor : — 1 rise to second the motion for the adop- 
tion of the resolutions reported by the committee, and in 
so doing deem it not inappropriate to submit a few 
remarks suggested by the sul>ject and the occasion. 



36 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN* 

Sir, au old aud eminent citizen, a great lawyer, one 
whose name tills a large space in the earlier judicial and 
legislative annals of our State, has gone from the Sanga- 
mon county bar to the bar of God. This regretful event 
was not wholly unexpected by his family and most inti- 
mate friends, and yet it is difficult to realize that he is 
indeed no more. In the language of the lamented Col. 
Baker, as applied to another, " it is not fit that such a 
man should pass unheralded to the tomb ; it is not fit 
that such a life should steal unnoticed to its close ; it is 
not tit that such a death should call forth no public 
lamentation." Nor is it so. The public press of our own 
aud other cities have already published eloquent and 
appreciative notices of the distinguished dead ; the repre- 
sentatives of our bar have met in solemn conclave and 
placed upon record their high estimate of his professional 
and private worth ; and now the members of this Council, 
representing the Capital City of Illinois, wherein he made 
his home for nearly fifty years, and with who-e history 
and growth he was prominently identified, would add 
their brief tribute to his memory. 

I shall not trespass on your time by entering here upon 
any rehearsal of the events of Stephen T. Logan's long 
and useful life, which opened February 24, 1800, and 
closed July 17, 1880, but I may be permitted to offer a 
hasty review of his personal and professional character, 
and to cast a flower on his bier, even though it has to-day 
been borne through the portals of the tomb. 

Whenever called upon to serve his fellow-citizens in 
any official capacity, whether as Circuit Attorney in his 
native Commonwealth of Kentucky, as a member of the 
Board of Town Trustees of Springfield before it became a 
city, as a Kepresentative repeatedly in the Legislature, 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 37 

as a Judge on the bench, as a member of the Constitu- 
tional Convention of 1847, or as a delegate to the Peace 
Conference of 1861, Logan responded to that call in a 
manner well calculated to reflect honor upon himself and 
conserve the public weal. But at no time in his histoiy 
was he a professed politician, or office seeker. He never 
wrote out his speeches for publication, and interspersed 
them at suitable intervals with the words " cheers " and 
"applause." He never acquired the modem art of 
manipulating " primaries " and " caucuses." He had " no 
hired retainers ; no paid letter writer ; no array of college 
companions to quote, commend and herald his fame to 
the world." He had little taste and less aptitude for the 
" out-door management, the electioneering legerdemain, 
and the wearisome correspondence " with local great 
men — all of which, at this day, are deemed requisites to 
political preferment and success. Nevertheless, his name 
and his deeds are inscribed in legible characters upon the 
official records of two States, and the inscriptions will not 
altogether fade. 

The controlling attachment of Logan, however, was 
centered in the law ; his mind was preeminently a legal 
one ; and his political ambition was rendered subordinate 
to his love for this science. He looked upon the law as 
the science of justice, and he followed it with the zeal of 
a true discix)le. His active forensic career extended over a 
period of about half a century, the larger portion of which 
was spent in Illinois, and in this city. But those who 
saw him only as " an old man, broken by the storms of 
State," can form no just idea of his appearance when, in 
the plenitude of his physical and intellectual powers, he 
stood forth the facile princeps, the acknowledged leader of 
the Illinois bar. 



38 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

A celebrated English critic (Hazlit) has said " that 
great natural advantages are seldom combined with great 
acquired ones, because they render the labor requisite to 
attain the latter superfluous and irksome." This weighty 
remark is not inapplicable to Logan, since he made no 
pretensions to scholarship in any pedantic sense of the 
term. He never collected a library worthy of the name, 
garnished with rare and expensive works. His read- 
ing was neither varied nor classical. His researches 
were chiefly in the line of his profession, but there they 
were thorough. His extraordinary mental endowments 
enabled him to comprehend, on a cursory examination, 
what would require ordinary minds patient and protracted 
labor to master. His intellect was not only capacious 
and vigorous, but it was emphatically quick, keen and 
subtle, and having been early accustomed to habits of 
close investigation, he could seize upon the Imottiest 
problems of law and unravel them with the greatest 
facility. " Under his magic touch all doubt and difficulty 
was at once dispelled, and the naked truth stood forth 
plainly and palpably defined." 

It was in the busy couri of justice that Logan seemed 
most at home. Indeed, there was something exhilarat- 
ing to him in the very atmosphere of the place. Here 
his exceptional talents were displayed in their best light, 
and here he was to be seen and studied to the best advan- 
tage. Entertaining and instructive it was to observe him 
before a jury in the argument of some important cause. 
Eesting one foot on a chair, he commences with a few 
commonplace remarks uttered in a clear conversational 
tone. He then lays hold of the leading facts and strong 
points of his case, states them with singular perspicuity 
and force, dwells on them at length, and presents them 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 39 

from every standpoint favorable to his client. As he pro- 
gresses he warms to his work. His small frame invol- 
untarily assumes a more erect and impressive attitude ; 
his gestures become more rapid ; his shrill voice is 
pitched to a higher key ; his gray eyes glow with anima- 
tion ; every muscle is at play, and every energy of his 
nature aroused, while words, sentences, arguments, illus- 
trations, appeals, flow in torrents from his lips. At the 
conclusion of his speech he sinks to his seat in a profuse 
perspiration, and well nigh exhausted. He leaves little 
else to be said on his side of the case, for he has covered 
the whole ground. 

Some French writer has observed that " nothing is 
beautiful but what is natural." This may well be said of 
Logait's style of speaking, which was formed after no 
model except his own, yet was beautiful because it was 
natural. He was an eloquent speaker, though his elo- 
quence was of a peculiar kind, and difficult to describe. 
He seemed to have adopted Chief Justice Marshall's 
maxim, and " always aimed at strength." His forte was 
reasoning, but it was reason imbued with intense anima- 
tion, and he drove his juries to conviction as much by 
the resistless energy of his style, as by the lucidity and 
compactness of his logic. His temperament was also 
strongly emotional, and in the defense of persons 
arraigned for grave crimes and misdemeanors, he some- 
times touched with a master hand those secret springs of 
feeling and passion which lie in the recesses of every 
human breast. Whenever he addressed the court upon 
any mooted question of pleading or practice, he was 
heard with eager attention Ijy his brethren of the bar, 
because he threw a flood of light upon every legal prin- 
ciple he discussed. 



40 MEMOIES OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

It might be objected to Logan's forensic efforts, and 
more especially his jury efforts, that they abounded in 
iteration, though the fault is a common one with lawyers, 
and arises partly from the nature of the calling itself. 
Moreover, juries, as a rule, are not composed of a trained 
order of intellect ; and it, therefore, seems necessary for 
the skillful advocate to repeat over and recombine the 
same facts and arguments in a variety of forms, so as to 
impress them indelibly upon the minds of the men 
addressed, and thus secure the desired verdict. 

One great secret of his success as a practitioner was 
due to the fact that, like Choate, he exerted himself to 
the utmost in almost every suit in which he was employed. 
It mattered not what was the tribunal, the party, or the 
fee, " he put forth his whole strength, summoning to his 
aid the resources of his legal learning, his logic, his wit, 
and knowledge of men, and struggled as for his life for 
the mastery." 

It is a quality of superior and dominating minds to 
rely upon themselves, and to assume the leadership in 
whatever enterprise they may engage. Such was the 
case with Logan. No matter what the character and 
ability of the counsel associated with him in a given law 
suit, he occupied the foreground, and upon him rested 
the chief burden of the controversy. To his clients "he 
was faithful to a degree that knew no bounds, except the 
bounds of honor." He identified himself for the time 
being with them, made their cause his cause, and their 
interests his own. It would be hard to determine in 
what branch of the science of jurisprudence he attained 
the greatest proficiency — whether as a criminal, a com- 
mon law or chancery lawyer— for he seemed alike at home 
in all, and in all he shone without a peer. Few men in 
this country have ever brought to the profession of the 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 41 

■ — 1 ■ 

bar so many qualifications to ensure success as he. 
" Logan is the best natural lawyer I ever knew," said the 
late Judge McLean, of the United States Court, himself 
a jurist of the soundest judgment and ripest experience, 
and such is the concurring testimony of his legal asso- 
ciates. 

His demeanor at the bar was neither opinionative nor 
arrogant, but was characterized by a proper respect for 
the opinions of the court, and by an affable and obliging 
disposition toward his professional brethren. His tem- 
per, however, was naturally fiery, and quick to resent 
invidious remarks or unprofessional conduct on the part 
of opposing counsel. At such times they were sure to 
feel the sting of his repartees, keen and pungent as the 
rapier's thrust. 

The life of the lawyer in full practice is anything but a 
life of ease. It is rather one of excitement and anxiety, 
of patient investigation and often of protracted toil spent 
in the perusal of authorities, in the preparation of briefs, 
and in the trial or adjustment of vexatious and compli- 
cated causes. Hence in time he becomes literally worn 
out with the corroding cares of his clients, and when the 
silver thread of life is at last sundered forever, only a 
scanty and fragmentary record remains of his history. 
" Probably in no department of life," says an able writer, 
" is there displayed so much talent which leaves no last- 
ing record. The shrewd management and ready wit, the 
keen retort, the deep learning and the impassioned elo- 
quence of the accomplished lawyer, all come in play and 
tell strongly on the result, but they do their work and are 
seen no more ; felt and admired at the time, they go to 
make up the contemporaneous estimate living at the 
place, but not to be reproduced for other times and other 
admirers." How next to impossible, then, in a skeleton 



42 MEMOIES OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN, 

sketch like this, to recall and portray those "nice shades 
of character and talent, of thought and feeling, of look 
and gesture," of wit and pathos, which went to form the 
sum total of Stephen Trigg Logan's greatness and fame 

as a lawyer. 

* * * * ***** 

In private life Logan was one of the most exemplary 
of men. Simple in his tastes, methodical in his habits, 
unpretentious in his manners, and careless of his attire, 
he lived, moved, and acted as if he were one of the least 
influential and observed of mankind. He was punctual 
and exact in all his business transactions. His maxim 
was to " owe no man anything," and to pay as he went — 
a most excellent rule, but one which is "more honored in 
the breach than in the observance." He was also a man 
of unusually strong local and domestic attachments, pre- 
ferring the quiet of his own comfortable fireside and the 
society of his own family to that of all others ; and, as a 
corrollary to this, he was one of the kindest of husbands 
and most indulgent of fathers. 

Before taking our leave of Logan, it may not be 
improper to say that, in his matured and declining years, 
he experienced many severe afflictions. He outlived the 
major portion of his immediate family and kindred. He 
lost in succession all four of his sons, whom he had 
doubtless hoped would have perpetuated his name and 
fame to after generations. He saw his aged companion, 
the mother of his children, borne from his house ,of 
mourning to "the house appointed for all living;" he 
followed two of his amiable daughters in sorrow to the 
grave ; but amid all these domestic trials, Logan was 
Logan still; and, at length, worn out by the toils and 
conflicts of this sublunary life, he bowed his whitened 
head in submission to the will of his Creator, and slept 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 43 

with his fathers. No more shall we see his slight form 
and sharply-chiseled features on our busy streets ; no 
more shall we meet him in the bustling courts of law, so 
long the theatre of his intellectual struggles and triumphs ; 
and never more shall the halls of justice ring with the 
tones of his shrill, clear voice. For that heart once so 
fiery, and that tongue once so impassioned, now lie pulse- 
less and still in death. 

Thus one after another these venerated relics of the 
past, these tottering monuments of a former and perhaps 
better generation, are going hence to the silent land — 
" to that shore from whose sands is never heard the echo 
of retreating footsteps." "Thus," says Irving, "man 
passes away; his name gradually perishes from record 
and recollection ; his history is as a tale that is told, and 
his very monument becomes a ruin." 

But, sir, I will 

"No farther seek his merits to disclose, 
Nor draw his frailties from their dread abode, 

There they alike in trembling hope repose, 
The bosom of his Father and his God." 

At the conclusion of this elaborate panegyric, the ques- 
tion was taken upon the adoption of the resolutions, 
and they were unanimously adopted. The Council then 
adjourned. 



ACTION IN THE CIRCUIT COURT CONCERNING THE DECEASE 
OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

The Circuit Court of Sangamon County, Illinois, having 
convened in regular session, October 8, 1880, with Judge 
C. S. Zane on the bench, the Hon. John T, Stuart 
addressed the Court announcing the death of Stephen T. 



4-4 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

Logan — the Nestor of this bar— aiul in a few well-chosen 
words, presented the resolutions that had been adopted 
at the meeting; of the Sangamon Coiintj' bar. Thereupon 
Judge B, S. Edwards asked that the resolution (already 
inserted) with the obituary addresses on that occasion, 
be spread upon the records of the Court. In ordering 
this to be done, Judge Zane feelingly said : 

REMARKS OF JUDGE CHARLES S. ZANE. 

The estimation in which the late Stephen T. Logan 
was held by his professional brethren, expressed in these 
resolutions, will be recorded on the records of the Court 
over which he presided for a time, and in which he 
practiced for many years. From an acquaintance with 
him, and in view of the occasion, I feel authorized, also, 
to express briefly my appreciation of his mental and 
moral qualities — of his life and character. This under- 
taking I feel unable worthily to perform. It is difficult 
to specify the capacities of the human mind, and harder 
to describe the peculiar qualities of those powers in 
any individual, especially those of so remarkable a 
man. We believe that there is an incomprehensible 
power which manifests the universe — all reality — every 
existence ; that among these is the human mind connected 
wdth a physical organization ; that the essence of neither 
can be understood— that both possess qualities which can 
be distinguished ; that one is material, and the other is 
believed to be immaterial. One is perceived through the 
senses. The other is known from the expressions of its 
activities. That the powers of either may be strengthened 
and their capacities increased by good treatment, or 
impaired or destroyed by dissipation. The appearance 
of Judge Logan did not indicate physical power, but he 
practiced those virtues friendly to health and life, and 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 45 

enjoyed both for more than eighty years. . Our brother 
was most remarkable for that knowledge which is of 
internal origin. His perceptions of the relations between 
causes and effects — of the principles relating to conduct, 
the springs of human action — were quick and clear. 

The mind remembers those things to which its attention 
is directed and in which an interest is felt. Judge Logan 
was always interested in principles and the reasons upon 
which they stood. And he possessed the capacity of at 
once riveting his attention on any subject in which he 
became interested. Therefore he remembered relations — 
reasons and principles. While others might remember 
names, dates and isolated facts and abstract principles 
better than he, but few could recall principles in the con- 
crete so readily and well. His memory was philosophical. 

Our brother took but little pleasure in considering the 
relations of numbers, lines and surfaces — mathematical 
problems. He considered motives, and actions with their 
causes and consequences, — social, political and legal ques- 
tions. He succeeded better in moral than in mathe- 
matical reasoning. In the former he was very ready, 
accurate and profound. Ideas came into his conscious- 
ness vividly — his mind was remarkable for its activity and 
clearness. Though he could readily understand the 
precise similarities and differences in cases, and was apt 
in reasoning by analogy, he relied more upon the discus- 
sion and application of principles, and in drawing infer- 
ences therefrom, than upon precedents. He believed, as 
did Lord Mansfield, that "the law does not consist of 
particular cases, but of general principles, which are 
illustrated and expounded by those cases." 

Judge Logan was deeply sensible of the effects which 
time had brought upon him, and looked forward with 
solicitude to the time when life's journey should end. To 



46 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

these, and to the changes which had come under his 
observation in the past, and which awaited the future, he 
often referred. He saw the forces of nature uniting, con- 
structing, changing and separating all things. He was a 
close observer of natural phenomena, and possessing a 
mind capable of long sequences, he could ascend to general 
principles and reach expanded views. He saw that all 
things were changing from the most insignificant organiza- 
tion to the grandest and sublimest in space. He con- 
sidered human conduct in primitive times, and the social 
systems which have grown out of the nature of man in the 
various stages «f his progress and development, since 
he emerged into the light of history. He studied the 
governments which have passed away, and those now 
standing for the regulation of human conduct and protec- 
tion of society. And while he doubtless believed that no 
form, condition or relation was abiding, he saw beneath 
all an incomprehensible power, for which no begin- 
ning, no end, no bounds could be conceived ; whose forces 
are persistent and uniform, and whose actions, under 
similar conditions, produces like effects ; that the atten- 
tion of suggestive and discriminating minds directed to 
such action, and to the conditions, ha\e learned pre- 
cisely what effects the action of such forces will produce 
under given conditions, and that a statement of such 
knowledge constitutes science. He respected nature's 
laws. He studied municipal law as a great system, 
created and formed according to the moral sentiments of 
the people. He considered morality as a science growing 
out of the nature of man — the end of which is human 
welfare. He studied human nature out of which ethics 
have grown, and in which they are rooted. He knew that 
the love of life, the love of liberty, the domestic affections, 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 47 

human sympathy, a fellow-feehng, the feelmg of happi- 
ness and pain, belong to man and are part of his nature. 
And it is inferred, that he beheved that a feehng of 
respect and reverence for such rights, affections and 
behefs naturally arose in the mind. He saw that 
certain conduct necessarily causes human happiness, 
and other conduct human pain, and that those actions 
which in all their consequences, immediate and remote, 
whose effects in the aggregate are human happiness, 
human welfare, are right ; and that those actions which 
in all their effects, immediate and remote, aggregate pain, 
human misery, are wrong. Therefore he believed in the 
moral rule which forbids all conduct the effects of which 
aggregate a surplus of human pain over happiness. He 
believed that good faith, honesty, temperance, economy 
and industry should prevail, and that the limitations 
upon the actions and enjoyments of men, so far as 
imposed by laws, should be equal ; and that such rules 
of conduct, and all others, the observance of which pro- 
mote human welfare, are morally right, and should be 
obeyed. 

Our brother had studied profoundly in his youth, and 
through his long professional career, the science of ethics 
and of muncipal law, which is based upon it. He under- 
stood that all just laws recognize and enforce moral 
principles. That while all the duties enjoined by morality 
may not be enforced by municipal laws, because their 
enforcement thereby would be impracticable, that all just 
laws are based upon ethics. He saw that the laws of 
different countries differ, as the moral sentiments of those 
who make them differ; that 'in some the law-makers 
believe in the divine right of rulers, and in orders of 
nobility, with hereditary rights and privileges, and that 
their laws accord with their moral sentiments — their 



48 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

ethics. That the American people beheve in equality of 
rights and privileges, in equal limitations upon their con- 
duct, that their laws conform to their moral sentiments ; 
that upon this great idea their government reposes, the 
first so modeled and constructed upon that principle that 
all tongues, creeds and races alike find shelter under it. 
Equality is the substance, the indispensable element of 
all justice and all equity, and the experience of man shows 
that it promotes human welfare. To our brother, as a 
law-maker, the question must .have always recurred, 
"Ought the law to be modified, changed or enacted?" 
The question was, "Will the proposed law promote the 
welfare of the people — human welfare?" The appeal 
was always to his sense of right — his conscience. 

The common law, constitutional law, and statute law — 
all justice and all equity — are the expressions of the moral 
sense of the law-makers, and that sentiment is the voice 
of humanity — the expression of human nature. 

While our brother had a discriminating mind, and 
could make subtle distinctions, and was able to consider 
the parts of a complex question, to compare propositions 
which concern particulars, and to deduce inferences there- 
from to a great degree, he never became perplexed or 
confused with particulars. He always showed an ability 
to expand his views, and to so state and illustrate obscure 
inferences, as to make himself clearly understood. He 
could follow antecedent and consequent cause and effect 
in long succession, and recognize every relation, all the 
links in the chain, with great clearness. 

Our brother felt deeply. He was impressed by the 
changes occurring around him, most pathetically by those 
which effected or severed the nearer and more sacred rela- 
tions. His mnnner of expression was earnest ; at times 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 49 

he spoke with vehemence, but he always accurately com- 
municated the state of his mind. He was a man of fine 
sensibilities and strong emotions. 

Judge Logan was born in the first year of the present 
century, and in his youth met and associated with men 
who took part in that great struggle which resulted in 
founding a Government which imposes equal limitations 
on the conduct of its citizens, and which leaves open alike 
to all, every field of human action. Amid such inspira- 
tions, and in view of the possibilities of the future, he 
looked up to a science whose principles were being applied 
in a new Government, differing fundamentally from those 
then standing, or those which had disappeared in the 
past, — to a science which defines the duties of human 
beings in civilized society, and specifies the modes and 
methods by which they may be enforced and secured. In 
the vigor of manhood he selected this place, then a fron- 
tier village, for his future home. And here he discharged 
the various duties of a citizen the remainder of his 
long life. Here he sought to ascertain the truth, some- 
times from conflicting testimony, and to expound and 
apply the law. Here he held the scales of justice with an 
even hand. Here, as a law giver, he sought to benefit his 
fellow-men in aiding to form a constitution, and in enact- 
ing laws for his adopted State. 

Here he practiced his profession with great success and 
ability, and engaged in the discussion of questions relat- 
ing to public affairs, until, in the evening of his life, he felt 
the infirmities of age approaching, when he retired from 
the field of his professional labors, with an ample fortune, 
and without a spot or a blemish upon his character, to 
the quiet of his home ; and in the enjoyments of its com- 
forts, except when the bereavements from which life has 
—4 



50 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 



no retreat, entered with their shadows, their clouds and 
their darkness, he hved until in obedience to the summons 
of the final messenger, he pillowed his head in that 
repose from which the inspirations of religion and the 
longings for immortality in the human soul give hope that 
he will rise renewed with the vigor of youth upon the dawn 
of a brighter morning, to a day without infirmities or 
bereavements, without darkness, clouds or shadows. 

.Judge Zane, upon concluding his remarks, invited the 
Hon. Mason Brayman, who was present, to speak. Gen. 
Brayman responded as follows : 

GENERAL BRAYMAn's ADDRESS. 

May it PleAse the Court : — Until coming into court, a 
few minutes since, I was unaware of the matter under 
consideration. Under the encouraging intimation of your 
Honor, I cannot refrain, even at this late day, from join- 
ing my fellow-members of the bar in the tribute of respect 
and veneration just paid to the memory of Stephen T. 
Logan. When I came to this bar in early professional 
life — it was in 1842 — he was in the plenitude of his powers. 
There were giants in those days. Here stood Lincoln, 
Douglas, Stuart, Baker, Bledsoe, McDougal, Strong, 
Edwards, Lamborn, and many others then rising into 
eminence and since distinguished— a galaxy of legal learn- 
ing and eloquence seldom equalled— yet all paid willing 
homage to the masterly ability of Judge Logan, and 
willingly accorded him the leadership. Like other younger 
members of the bar, I soon learned to appreciate the 
soundness of his judgment, the accuracy of his learning, 
the brilliancy of his legal conceptions. 

Judge Logan was not favored with a classical educa- 
tion, nor did he acquire his legal training in the schools, 
but was one of those remarkable men whose natural 



MEMOIES OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 51 

genius and force of character overcame all obstacles. He 
had wonderful quickness and power of concentration. I 
have never known at the bar, anywhere, a man who could 
so readily seize the strong points of his case and present 
them to the court and jury with equal clearness and force ; 
nor one who would so readily uncover the weak points of 
an adversary. He was vigorous and untiring in his 
client's cause, yet just, fair and courteous. The younger 
members of the bar believed in him, and became better 
lawyers and nobler, men in endeavoring to follow his 
example and teachings. 

As in professional, so in social and business life, he was 
kind and faithful, even-handed and just, and those who 
remain of his family and familiar friends, can have none 
but happy and grateful recollections of him. It was not 
in his nature to be diffusive in his aims, or to vary his 
employments. His home was on the bench and at the 
bar. Political life had no charm for him. On one occa- 
sion, I recollect well, when, as a member of the House of 
Eepresentatives here, he rose to the dignity of statesman- 
ship, and at a most critical moment saved Illinois from 
the danger of repudiation, and aided in laying the foun- 
dation, upon which was built a restored credit, and after 
which, in natural sequence, came an era of financial 
greatness and prosperity scarcely matched in the history 
of States. It was when the bill for refunding our old 
State debt was brought into the House. Our internal 
improvement system had been a disastrous and disgrace- 
ful failure. We owed fourteen millions, mostly in bonds 
not worth fourteen cents to the dollar. The interest was 
unpaid. The shadow of repudiation had fallen upon the 
public mind, and infected members of the General Assem- 
bly. At the bottom, the people of Illinois were honest. 
While confessing that they could not pay, they stoutly 



52 MEMOIKS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

resolved tliat they would pay— sometime. A night session 
was held for the final struggle upon the momentous meas- 
ure. Judge Logan held himself in reserve until this 
hour. All were eager to know his position, for it was felt 
that the fate of the bill was in his hands. This old hall 
was packed to the utmost. He took the tloor — the vener- 
able and honored Ninian W. Edwards being in the chair — 
and in one of the most brilliant efforts of his life, sup- 
ported the bill. I recall one of his thrilling sentiments : 
" I know my constituents of Sangamon county, and they 
know me. I know that they did not send me here to make 
repudiators of them — and they know that no constituency 
can make a repudiator of me !" The bill was safe. 
When he closed, it was passed under the previous ques- 
tion. From that hour Illinois went forward. Her three 
or four hundred thousand then, go beyond three million 
now. Her overshadowing debt has disappeared, and in a 
few weeks the last dollar will be paid. To him whose 
memory you here commemorate, and to those who stood 
with him in those trying hours, Illinois is indebted for a 
credit restored, and honor untarnished. The language 
of eulogy w^ell befits this occasion. Such examples are 
above all price, for they are a living light, guiding the 
feet and dignifying the energies of men who come after, 
through all time. Without State credit, which is State 
honor, there can be no State pride. As it was, and is, 
every citizen of Illinois may look with satisfaction to the 
past, with pride to the present and hope to the future. 
The names of her great and good men are written upon 
the brightest pages of our country's history. She gave 
Lincoln — a name redolent with glorious, gratifying, pain- 
ful recollections. She gave hundreds of thousands of 
gallant men to the Union in the hour of its great trial. 
Her constitution and body of law are the best devised for 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN" T. LOGAN. 53 

any State. Her internal improvements, her agricultural 
resources and enterprise are unequalled. Her common 
school system is magnificently endowed — her colleges and 
institutions of learning are found everjrwhere— affording 
means of educating every child she has. All the elements 
of a high Christian civilization are at work. Her judi- 
ciary is faithful, and the laws wisely administered. 

These blessings do not come by accident. Under a 
guiding Providence, they result from human foresight, 
human labor, human patience. The hands of the builders 
may be busy to-day and to-morrow, placing one stone 
upon another, while the brains that contrived, the hearts 
that swelled with expectation, and the hands that laid the 
foundations long ago, are at rest. To this early work — to 
this wise beginning, Stephen T. Logan gave his active 
brain, his generous heart and fashioning hand. With 
him have gone most of those who set out with him. They 
rest from their labors, and those who survive will soon 
follow. The morning sun, whose rays are glinted back 
from furrowed brows and frosted heads, will, very soon, 
as it goes down in the western horizon, cast its mellowed 
glance upon the sod that covers them. In this is our 
lesson. And it is well to-day to thank God for every good 
influence that is awakened in these memories of the 
venerated friend whom you love and honor. 

Court then adjourned. 



COMMEMOPtATIVE PP.OCEEDINGS IN THE ILLINOIS SUPREME 
COURT, IN HONOR OF THE LATE STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

On January 6th, 1881, during the first week of the 
annual term of the State Supreme Court for the Central 
Grand Division of Illinois, convened in the court room at 



54 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

the new Capitol in Springj&eld, a life-sized portrait, in 
oil, of the lamented Logan was presented to the court, 
and also the resolutions of respect passed at the meeting 
of the Bar of Sangamon county, held on the 19th of July 
preceding. The announcement of these commemorative 
exercises had served to attract to the spacious court room 
a large and interested audience, composed of local mem- 
bers of the bar, old personal friends of Judge Logan, 
attorneys in attendance upon the courts, and the State 
Bar Association, together with many members of the 
Legislature, then in session, and State officers. 

At ten o'clock the Supreme Justices made their appear- 
ance and formally opened court. Several orders were 
announced and motions entered, after which the Chief 
Justice, Dickey, announced that the Court awaited the 
further pleasure of the bar. 

presentation of Logan's portrait. 

At this stage of the proceedings, the Hon. Milton Hay 
arose and addressed the Court, and in presenting the 
portrait of Judge Logan made the following address : 

REMARKS OF HON. MILTON HAY. 

May it Please Your Honor : In the interval that may 
now take place before other proceedings are entered upon 
before your Honors, I have a matter to submit to the 
Court — or to the Judges of the Court. 

The family of the late Stephen T. Logan have author- 
ized me to present to the State, through the channel of 
the honorable Judges of this Court, the portrait of Judge 
Logan, here present. This portrait was painted by the 
artist Healey but a short time before the death of the 
Judge. The picture the family believe to be a very faith- 
ful likeness of him as he appeared in the latter years 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T, LOGAN. 55 

of his life, and although his contemporaries, who have 
survived him, may miss in the expression of the features 
something of that vigor which characterized them at 
the robust period of his life, they nevertheless observe 
in its place a serenity, without loss of intellectual clear- 
ness, which leaves little to regret at the mellowing influ- 
ence which the hand of time had upon him. The family , 
have desired me to express a condition, to the effect that 
this portrait shall remain a fixture of this Hall of Justice, 
with the privilege, however, to the State, to remove it to 
any other room of this Capitol that may be specially 
appropriated to works of art and portraiture. 

Chief Justice Dickey accepted the portrait, with the 
remark that the wishes of the donors would be observed. 

PKESENTATIONS OF THE RESOLUTIONS. 

The Hon. Orville H. Browning, of Quincy, — a life-long 
friend of Judge Logan — who had been selected to present 
to the Court the resolutions of the Bar meeting, then 
arose, and in his peculiarly impressive manner, delivered 
the following able and eloquent eulogy : 

MR. browning's address. 

If the Court Please : On the 17th day of July, 1880, 
the Hon. Stephen T. Logan, a distinguished member of 
the bar of this city, departed this life. The event could 
not be permitted to pass unheeded by his professional 
brethren ; hence the members of the bar of Sangamon 
county and such others from adjoining counties as were 
able to reach this city in time, assembled to give expres- 
sion to their sorrow for his death and their very great 
respect for his memory, and have charged me with the 
honored, but melancholy, duty of making the proper 
announcement to this court, and of presenting the reso- 
lutions adopted on that occasion. 



56 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

The practice of imputing to every deceased member of 
the bar all the virtues, and of inscribing his name high 
upon the roll of able, learned and distinguished barristers 
and jurists, which has been but too common, is not to be 
commended ; but when the truly good, able and eminent 
die, it is fitting that a just tribute be paid to their mem- 
ories, and that truthful memorials of their honorable and 
useful lives be preserved. 

No man who ever adorned the profession and shed 
lustre upon the bar of this State, has been more worthy, 
or has had a stronger or more legitimate claim to such 
recognition than our deceased brother. He did honor to 
the profession while he lived, and it would be a reproach 
to the bar of the State should they fail to do honor to his 
memory, now that he is dead. 

In more than usually large measure he combined the 
attributes of a good man, a valuable citizen, an eloquent 
and powerful barrister, and an able and upright judge. 
Conspicuous for the qualities which enter into all these 
characters, he could not fail to deserve and win the admi- 
ration and esteem of those who knew him. 

Residing in different parts of the State, and the circuits 
in which we practiced being remote from each other, I 
never had the privilege of meeting him in the nisi jjrius 
courts of Illinois. My professional acquaintance with 
him was derived chiefly from our meetings in the Supreme 
Court of the State, and in the Circuit and District Courts 
of the United States. I had also appeared before him 
whilst he was on the bench, in some important and excit- 
ing cases, and from the opportunities thus afforded of 
judging of his character and abilities as a lawyer, I do 
not hesitate to say that, in many of the elements and 
attributes of a great lawyer, he was the peer of any one 
I have known. 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 57 

I have no wish or intention of undue praise. I wish 
to speak of him only the plain truth, and I am sure it 
will not be regarded as exaggeration to say that he stood 
in the very front rank of the legal profession of Illinois, 
and that he needed only a larger theater of action than 
that to which he had limited himself ^ to have made him 
as widely and as prominently known and as highly dis- 
tinguished throughout the Eepublic as the most eminent 
and famous of contemporary law>ers in the United 
States. 

An intuitive love of justice and fair play in all the 
conflicting interests of life ; clearness of perception ; 
acuteness and accuracy of observation ; a quick compre- 
hension of the relations of things and their differences 
and distinctions, and of the motives which stimulate and 
control the actions of men, were endowments which 
peculiarly fitted him for success and distinction in his 
chosen profession. 

He belonged to a school of lawyers of which but few 
now remain. He was of that class who had not had the 
benefits of being taught by lectures in law schools, but 
who learned the fundamental principles and maxims of 
the law with the precision and accuracy with which a 
child learns, or ought to learn, his catechism, by the 
hard, close, diligent study of Bacon, Coke, Hale Saun- 
ders, Tidd, Blackstone, Chitty, Kent, and kindred 
authors. This course of study was generally prosecuted 
in the office, and under the instruction of some able 
practitioner. And when the student had advanced so 
far as to entitle him to admission to the bar, he was 
introduced to a system of practice in strong contrast to 
that which obtains at present, and which was, undoubt- 
edly, very favorable to quick, vigorous and subtle think- 
ing and reasoning. Biding a circuit composed of many 



58 MEMOIKS OF STEPHEN T, LOGAN. 

counties, was habitual with every prominent member of 
the bar at that time, and as a consequence, the bulk of 
his business, which involved litigation, lay, mainly, out- 
side the county of his residence, so that he rarely had 
any information or knowledge of the cases he would be 
called upon to try, till he had reached the court where 
they were pending. He then had neither time nor means 
to ransack reports (of which, fortunately, there were then 
but few) nor to catechise and drill witnesses. Issues had, 
generally, already been formed by local lawyers, and the 
circuit barrister, who was often engaged about the time 
the case was called for trial, had time only to cast his 
eye over the pleadings, to ascertain what the issues were, 
and could possess himself of the facts only as they were 
disclosed by the witnesses upon the stand. For the law 
which was applicaple to, and which was to govern and 
control such a case, he had, necessarily, to fall back upon 
his own resources, and to draw from the stores of knowl- 
edge which he had previously accumulated. 

All his powers of memory were put in action to recall, 
upon the morpent, the general principles of the law, and 
all his skill and sublety in logic and dialectics were 
brought into exercise in the application of the law to the 
facts. 

This system of practice was well adapted to the con- 
stant growth and development of the intellectual faculties, 
and to quickening, strengthening and enlarging their 
powers and capacities. It encouraged habits of close 
and accurate observation, a clear, sharp analysis of the 
facts observed, and a ready and forcible exposition of the 
principles of the law. 

It was a system which brought out all the legal learn- 
ing, and all the argumentative, logical and oratorical 
force of those engaged, and made of almost every nisi 



3IEM0IES OF BTEPHEX T. LOGAN. 59 

prim trial an attractive intellectual entertainment. No 
one better illustrated the advantages of this method of 
practice than Judge Logan. He fully appropriated all its 
benefits, and was one of its highest products. 

The same habit of clear statement, and direct, close 
and concentrated reasoning which he had acquired on the 
circuit, he carried with him into the court of final resort. 
In his day and generation all cases in the supreme court, 
as well as in the courts below, were argued orally, and he 
never vexed the judges with long, elaborate briefs and 
essays, nor never tried their patience by the tedious read- 
ing of authorities. I can not now recall any instance of 
his stopping in the course of an argument to read from any 
book. He made a lucid and intelligent statement of the 
facts, and of the elemental principles, and axioms of the 
law of the case, and all the rest was pointed, vigorous 
argument. 

His mind was as flexible and accute as it was strong 
and robust. He thought with great clearness, and conse- 
quently commanded a corresponding clearness of expres- 
sion, and never failed, however abstruse the subject, or 
subtle the thought, to make those who heard him com- 
prehend his exact meaning. His capacity in this regard 
was very remarkable. I do not think I have ever known 
any one who possessed, in fuller measure, the faculty 
of conveying, clearly and distinctly, into the minds of 
others, the precise image and idea which filled his own. 
Hence he was capable of saying what he meant, and of 
making others understand what he meant, in the fewest 
possible words. There was ydih him no circumlocution, 
diffuseness or repetition. He obscured nothing by a super- 
fluity of words. His addresses, whether to the court or 
jury, so far as I have had the good fortune to hear them, 
were models of condensation — short and concise — but not 



60 MEMOIES OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

too concise to be lucid and convincing ; and when he con- 
ckided, there seemed to be nothing left to l)e said on his 
side of a case. 

In popular estimation, he would hardly be regarded as 
an accomplished orator. He had not studied, nor did he 
attempt to practice, the artificial graces of elocution. He 
never postured for effect, nor made a display of intellectual 
fire- works to arouse vulgar applause, but sought "the 
suffrage of the wise." He was not ornate and showy, 
either in diction or action ; but his diction was pure, 
chaste, and vigorous, his action natural and impressive, 
his reasoning clear, cogent and convincing, and his pas- 
sion spontaneous and contagious. This combination of 
qualities marked him as a speaker of true and genuine 
eloquence. 

I speak of him as he impressed me. Unimposing as 
his person and presence were outside the forum, there 
was that about him, when stimulated by the collision of 
debate, which imparted to his manner, and his shrill 
voice, an extraordinary fascination. It was the fascina- 
tion of awakened genius. 

When he arose to speak, the first words which he 
uttered fixed the attention of all who heard him. This 
was especially observable in the case of strangers who 
chanced to be present, and who neither knew the man, 
nor were interested in the occasion. They were sure to 
be strongly attracted by the first tones of his voice, sure 
to feel that they were in the presence of no ordinary or 
common-place man, and unless draAvn away by some 
urgent necessity, were very certain to yield to the spell, 
and remain to the close of his- address. 

He studied his profession, and was admitted to the 
bar in his native State, Kentucky, and in a practice of 
some ten years there, in association, and in conflict with 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 61 

lawyers of acknowledged ability, won distinction, and 
established a high reputation. He was still young when 
he removed to this State, and commenced practice here, 
where he soon became eminent. But little time elapsed 
till he took a commanding position in the foremost rank 
of a bar composed of men of much more than ordinary 
talents and attainments, and by universal consent, main- 
tained it to the close of his .professional life. 

Younger men, who afterwards attained great distinc- 
tion at the bar, and have done honor to the State, at 
least one of whom still remains with us, had their train- 
ing in his office and under his instruction. ' Among others 
who had the benefit of his association, example and 
instruction, was the lamented Lincoln, who afterwards 
became so illustrious in the history of our country, and 
before the world, and whose memory is enshrined in all 
our hearts. 

As his law partner. Mr. Lincoln was long and intimately 
associated with Judge Logan, and, no doubt, during that 
period, received much of the preparation which fitted 
him for the brilliant and useful career which awaited 
him, and which enabled him to achieve immortal renown 
as a patriot and statesman. Mr. Lincoln at one time 
exerted all his influence, which was not then so great 
as it afterwards became, to have his friend and former 
partner placed upon the bench of a Federal Court. 

For such a station he was most eminently qualified, 
and had he held the position, he could not have failed to 
add to the exalted reputation of the American judiciary. 

I know that Mr. Lincoln then regarded Judge Logan 
as the most thorough and accomplished lawyer he had 
ever known, and through his whole life, he cherished 
for him an affection, admiration and respect which 
approached to reverence and adoration. 



62 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 



Had his ambition taken the direction of politics and 
pubhc affairs, his remarkable abilities leave no reason to 
doubt that he would have become as distinguished as a 
statesman, as he was as a barrister and jurist. 

He never sought public position, and had few oppor- 
tunities of demonstrating his aptitude for State affairs ; 
but there was one occasion when he was called to 
participate in the deliberations of a body which had 
under consideration political questions of the greatest 
gravity, complexity and importance ; questions of as much 
magnitude as can arise out of the tangled web of individ- 
ual and * * communal interests and concerns, and he 
then displayed such familiarity with municipal and inter- 
national law, such grasp of the fundamental principles 
and maxims upon which all free political institutions 
must be built and maintained, as to take his audience 
altogether by surprise, and to win the profound admira- 
tion of the strong, notable men who composed it. 

The " Peace Congress " which assembled in Washing- 
ton City early in 1861, before the unhappy differences 
between the northern and southern sections of the country 
had yet culminated in war, included many of the most 
eminent jurists and statesmen of the United States. 

I was not present, and had not the pleasure and benefit 
of hearing Judge Logan on that occasion ; but, after the 
lapse of many years, and after the southern States had 
been devastated by a war which that Congress strove in 
vain to avert, in conversation with learned and able men 
who were present as members of the Congress, I have been 
assured that the speech he then delivered was remarkable 
for its wisdom, its patriotism, its conciliatory tone and 
temper, its forecast of the future, and its eloquence and 
power ; and that had the counsels of our deceased brother 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 63 

been followed, all conflicting opinions and interests would 
have been reconciled, and the country have escaped the 
calamities which ensued. 

In social life he was characterized by all the amenities 
of a gentle, generous and kindly nature. His conversa- 
tion was always interesting and instructive. I never left 
his society without carrying away with me something 
worthy to be remembered, and without feeling that my 
stock of useful ideas and practical knowledge had been 
enlarged. 

His moral and social qualities were such as could not 
fail to attract observation, and to exercise an influence 
for good upon all who associated with him. 

It is said that " the purest treasure mortal times afford 
is spotless reputation," and that he had. 

I am not aware that, in all the varied scenes of life 
through which he passed, there was ever, in any tranb- 
action, or under any circumstances, an imputation upon 
his honor and integrity. A firm believer in the Christian 
religion, he exemplified in his daily walk the beauty, sim- 
plicity, charity and beneficence of its precepts, and looked 
forward, with serene hope and undoubting faith, to the 
promised resurrection, and to the unfading joys of a new 
and eternal life. 

Gentleness of manners and demeanor, unostentatious 
dignity, an exalted sense of honor, and a rigid observance 
of duty, all of which adorned his private and professional 
life, conspired to make him a tit exemplar for the young 
men of the profession, well worthy their study and imita- 
tion. From the contemplation of such a character they 
should learn more reverance — not for rank or wealth — 
but for " man with God's image stamped upon him, and 
God's kindling breath within." 



64 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

To those who knew him as a friend, and had the privi- 
leges of his companionship, and enjoyed the pleasures and 
advantages of his genial, intelligent and edifying conver- 
sation, his loss is a personal sorrow. But we do not 
mourn for him as for the young. He had overpassed the 
allotted age of man, and the time had come when, in 
obedience to the inexorable demands of the laws of 
nature, he must close his labors here and pass from the 
confines of time into that better and more blessed world, 
which we trust, lies beyond the boundaries of this. He 
closed his pilgrimage hese under conditions exceptionally 
free from the infirmities of age, and the lingering suffei - 
ing and helplessness which often precede the death of the 
old. His intellectual faculties gave no sign of decay, and 
he still had that measure of physical vigor and activity 
which enabled him to appreciate and enjoy the blessings 
which surrounded him. 

But his time had come. His record is honorably closed. 
He has gone before us under as favorable and pleasant 
circumstances as can well attend upon death, and it only 
remains for u-s, before we follow, to pay this last sad 
tribute to his memory. - • 

I now, if the court please, present the resolutions 
adopted by the bar, and respectfully ask that you will be 
pleased to order them to be spread upon the records of 
the court. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Browning's eulogy, the Clerk, 
Mr. E. A. Snively, by order of the Court, read the reso- 
lutions. 

The venerable Judge Caton, of Ottawa, next addressed 
the court, and paid the following feeling tribute to the 
memory of the departed barrister and jurist : 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 65 



REMARKS BY HON. JOHN D. CATON. 

May it Please the Court : I was not aware that this 
solemn and mournful announcement was to be made here 
until this morning, but hope that I will not interfere with 
any arrangement which may have been made, while I 
pray your Honors to bear with me for a few moments in 
order that I may express my approbation of what has 
been said so well of our deceased friend and brother. It 
may not be unfitting that I should speak of him, because 
I am one of the very few left who knew him in a very 
early day. I first met the deceased at the Tazewell Cir- 
cuit Court in 1833, now nearly 48 years ago. I met him 
there when Judge Lockwood held the court, and there 
were present John T. Stuart, John J. Hardin, Dan Stone 
and Stephen T. Logan, as practicing members of the 
bar. From that time until the time of his death I claim 
to have known him well — and a fonder claim — I claimed 
him as my friend. I practiced with him at the bar, I 
practiced before him when he was Circuit Judge, at many 
courts. I listened to his eloquence and to his arguments 
for nearly a quarter of a century when I was occupying 
a seat upon this exalted bench ; since then I have often 
met him, and but two years since, on my last visit to this 
city, I went out to his residence and spent an hour profit- 
ably and pleasantly with him. When I left him then I 
feared that we had met for the last time on earth, and 
now, alas, that, fear has been realized. Is it not fitting, 
then, that I, who have known him so well and so long, 
should detain you for a few moments in expressing my 
appreciation of one who has left so profound a mark not 
only upon the jurisprudence of this State, but upon all 
her institutions — has left a mark which only an able and 
a good man could leave? 



66 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

As a lawyer, associated with him at the bar, I ever found 
him a man of the highest integrity, of the profoundest 
research, and the acutest penetration. As a judge upon 
the bench, I never met his superior in the administration 
of the laws at nisi prius. No sophistry, no ingenuity, no 
persuasion could tempt him for a moment from that star 
of justice which ever shone brightly into his eye. He 
swept away sophistry like a cobweb, and struck the 
center of justice whenever he made a decision. As an 
adviser of this court I ever felt my indebtedness to him. 
By both his precept and his example he has left a deep 
impress, not only upon the judiciary of the State, but 
upon the profession at large. He has taught those who 
come after him to bear their parts well and nobly in the 
discharge of their professional duties, and they can look 
to no brighter light for a guidance in the pathway to honor 
and to usefulness. It has been justly said by the gentle- 
man who has preceded me that his learning was the 
philosophy of the law. He depended not so much upon 
the particular decision applicable to his case as upon 
the reason of the law sustaining his position. He has 
been called eloquent. He was, sir— he was eloquent in 
his own way. He adorned not his addresses with tinsel 
glitter or flagrant flowers of speech, but with an earnest 
reasoning and flow of words that I have rarely or never 
heard paralleled. I have sat upon that bench for an 
hour and a half listening to him, as I recollect upon one 
occasion, without appreciating that he had been talking 
ten minutes. It was a continuous gush of reason and 
flow of argument, with every word so perfectly selected, 
every sentence so complete, every thought so well matured 
that I forgot the passage of time, and was convinced 
without hesitation of the fairness of his reasoning. 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 67 

He, too, had to be convinced of the justice — at least he 
had to be persuaded that he was not advocating injustice 
— before he raised his voice in support of a cause, but that 
cause, when once espoused, he pursued with relentless 
energy. I recollect once when he was engaged with his 
partner, Mr. Lincoln, at the time they were partners, in 
the argument of a cause before this court, I happened to 
meet him and inquired, while Mr. Lincoln was making 
his address, if he proposed to argue the case. " I don't 
think I shall trouble you," he said. " I don't see it as 
clear as Mr. Lincoln does . I prefer to leave it with him." 
I confess I appreciated the compliment, that he thought 
an intimation from him that he did not believe that his 
associate was right would not affect my judgment — I say 
T appreciated it as a very high compliment. But it 
happened that the cause was decided as Mr. Lincoln had 
argued it. 

I will not detain you, but I could not in silence let this 
solemn occasion pass without bearing my testimony to 
the worth and to the learning of Stephen T. Logan, as a 
member of this bar, as once a member of the judiciary 
of the State, as a citizen of the commonwealth, and as a 
friend. I feel his loss the more because of those few I 
have named as those whom I first met in company with 
the deceased, but one besides myself is now alive, and it 
may well seem exceptional that after nearly fifty years 
even two out of five or six should be left to recall the 
incident. 

I must beg the pardon of the court for having thus, as 
a friend, interrupted their proceedings to express my 
regard for the departed, but I am sure the solemnity of 
the occasion will excuse me. 



68 MEMOIES OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

Mr. Justice Scott, from the bench, responded as follows : 

JUDGE JOHN M. SCOTT's KEMAKKS. 

It would hardly be appropriate for me from this bench 
and on this occasion to enter upon an extended analysis 
of the character of Judge Logan as a lawyer or citizen, 
and I shall not essay to do so. But having been honored 
with his friendship, I may be excused for bringing my 
poor tribute to cast in with the beautiful offerings others 
have brought to his memory. 

As you all know, he lived through a period covering 
more than three-fourths of the nineteenth century — a 
century that abounds in the activities of life, in useful 
inventions, in literature and science, and all that tends 
to refine and elevate our race more than any that has 
gone before. It is the men of the period that have made 
the century notable for this unexampled progress in all 
that makes the happiness of the world. During the 
formation period of our history as a State he dwelt 
among us, and it is but just to his memory to say, he left 
the impress of his character in some degree upon our 
institutions, and that they are better and purer for what 
they received from him. His name will be honorably 
associated in history with those who have done most for 
their State and country. 

Great as were the legal attainments of Judge Logan, if 
that were all that distinguished him, his name would 
soon cease to be spoken. The labors of the lawyer that 
make him known to the public are connected mostly with 
the business of the passing hour, and when the recollec- 
tion of that ceases, the lawyer, however great in his 
profession, is no longer remembered. No matter what 
reputation they may have borne difring their lives, emi- 
nent lawyers and judges who have blessed the world by 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 69 

the salutary principles they have assisted to maintain for 
the better security of society, life and property, although 
their memories may be written on enduring records, are 
only remembered by the profession, and are forgotten by 
the multitude in whose behalf they labored. The legal 
profession itself opens up but few channels to popular 
renown, nor does it afford much that attracts and retains 
permanently public attention. The man who devotes his 
exclusive attention to the jurisprudence of his country 
and the practice of its laws, need not expect his name 
will be long remembered in history. It is a singular fact 
that he who adds most to the happiness of mankind by 
silent forces and influences, is soonest forgotten. War 
is a destructive force, and yet those that become distin- 
guished in it are always the most prominent characters 
in history. But it is of those in private life who do most 
for mankind, of whom it may be said " their works do 
follow them ;" though their names are seldom heard on 
the tongues of men, yet the force they set in motion will 
continue to add to human happiness and make the world 
better and purer for having lived in it. He whose memory 
we now honor will be no exception to the general rule. 
His fame as a lawyer, like that of other distinguished 
jurists, may be, and doubtless will be, soon forgotten by 
all save a few surviving professional brethren, but the 
influence of his labors on the jurisprudence of our State 
will live always, and will be felt long after the personal 
destiny of those composing this presence shall have been 
written and become history. 

But in his private character as a citizen and friend, 
Judge Logan will be long remembered, and there are 
those present who will remember him as long as life exists, 
and who will ever bear with them recollections of his 
kindly life. It would be a poor tribute to his character 



70 MEMOIES OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

to affirm he was honest in monetary matters. He was 
all that, and what is far higher and nobler, he was honest 
in his friendship and in all his relations of life. He was 
as outspoken for good as he was indignant at wrong, and 
these qualities arose out of a character made up of ster- 
ling virtues, and adorned by the beautiful graces of a 
Christian life. It is written, " Mark the perfect man, and 
behold the upright : for the end of that man is peace." 

On occasions like this " all the burial places of the 
memory give up their dead," and what a cloud of recollec- 
tions come to us who are advanced in life. Visions of 
the past appear. Looking back through the years, 
memory reproduces all that has transpired. The com- 
panions of our early days, those who commenced life 
with us, stand around us again. We look upon their 
forms once more and feel again the gentle pressure of the 
hand manifesting mutual affection and confidence, and 
we hear again 

' ' Sweet voices we heard in the days gone before. " 

But, alas, it is but memory, and we are sad because 
they ar« not. 

Life at most is but a brief existence. " It is even a 
vapor, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth 
away." Often the plaintive words of the choric song of 
the lotus-eaters occur to us : 

"Let us alone, Time driveth onward fast, 
And ia a little while our lips are dumb. 
Let us alone. What is it that will last ?" 

Philosophically, we know nothing that has form and 
substance endures. Mutation and change appear every- 
where. Things we prize as our most precious jewels 
perish from our grasp. All that is beautiful, in whatever 
form it may exist, 

"Is the ivy's food at last." 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 71 

And is there nothing, then, that lasts ? Yes, there is 
something that lasts. It is the good done by men. It is 
the influence of all nobly done that lives through the ages. 

"And when thou stand'st for judgment on thine own, 
The deed shall shine beside thee as an angel." 

In his life-work, Judge Logan will live so long as the 
beautiful and pure in character is held in esteem. Life 
with him consisted — 

■'Of plain devotedness to duty, 

Steadfast and still, nor paid with mortal praise ; 

But finding- amplest recompense 

In work done squarely and unwasted days, 

For this we honor-him." 

In ordering the spreading of the resolutions of the bar 
upon the records of the court, the Chief Justice, T. Lyle 
Dickey, thus fittingly responded to the sentiments uttered 
by the other speakers : 

CHIEF JUSTICE DICKEy's RESPONSE. 

The court concurs in the sentiments contained in the 
resolutions presented, and in the thoughts so eloquently 
expressed by Mr. Browning in their presentation. 

The distinguished man to whose memory this tribute is 
rendered, was known to and honored by every member of 
this tribunal. 

More than forty years ago Stephen T. Logan occupied 
a seat upon the bench as one of the Circuit Judges in this 
State. His colleagues of that day, Kichard M. Young, 
Sidney Breese, Thomas Ford, Justin Harlan, and Henry 
Eddy, after lives of usefulness and distinction, have all 
gone hence. 

It was while in the discharge of his judicial functions 
that I first saw Judge Logan, and the impression then 
.made upon my mind of his marked ability has never been 



72 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

effaced. His preeminent distinction, however, was as a 
practicing lawyer. He seemed so thoroughly possessed 
of the fundamental principles and peculiar philosophy of 
the common law, that he was ever ready to state at once 
with precision and accuracy the rule of law and the reason 
for the rule, and to define the limitations and exceptions 
to the rule, with the reason for the limitation or exception. 

The legal proposition seemed to be developed and pro- 
duced in his mind, rather from a knowledge of the 
principles of law than from the memory of its statement 
by any author or jurist. The common law, in his hands, 
never seemed a conglomeration of artificial, discordant, 
and merely technical rules, but with all its ramifications, 
to form a full, complete and beautiful integer, composed 
of an infinitude of parts, consistent and harmonious, all 
founded in reason and aimed at even-handed justice. 

With a single exception, among all the lawyers of my 
acquaintance, in this respect, he had no peer. For many 
years Cyrus Walker divided with Logan the honors of 
leadership in the contests of the forum, and like him, 
seemed never at a loss for the rule of law or the reason on 
which it rested. They came to Illinois from the same 
part of Kentucky, and about the same time. Both, before 
coming to this State, had won reputation and acquired a 
competence. Both came here with the intention of retir- 
ing substantially from the practice. But so marked were 
their capabilities, that engaging in one case created a 
demand for their services in others so imperative, that, 
fortunately, they both felt themselves constrained to 
yield. My first acquaintance with these great lawyers 
began about the same time. This, with the similarity in 
many respects, in their lives, their methods and their 
qualities, has ever kept them associated in my mind. 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 73 

"Walker closed his labors of life about five years ago. 
Logan is now gone. They were both true men, useful 
and noble. 

Logan's style of speaking was earnest, vigorous and 
direct. His articulation was very distinct. His voice 
was penetrating, and though at times somewhat shrill 
when pitched upon its highest key, it usually had a musi- 
cal ring which was attractive and pleasing. He used few 
illustrations, indulged in no ornament, and wasted no 
words. He came at once to his point, and riveted the 
attention of his audience. Rarely pathetic, he was often 
persuasive and sometimes impassioned. His analysis 
was incisive and his reasoning logical and convincing. 
His mind was both comprehensive and discriminative. 
His conceptions were clear, his words simple and per- 
spicuous. His diction was exceedingly happy. Other 
men describe their thoughts ; Logan expressed his. His 
perceptions were ready and acute. Nothing escaped his 
observation. He seemed always equal to the occasion ; 
and however vast his subject, he seemed to grasp it in its 
entirety, and with a master hand to hold it plainly before 
his listeners, and to deal with its respective parts at will. 

The late Justice McLean, of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, who had a wide acquaintance with men 
and affairs, and a large judicial experience, often said 
Judge Logan was the ablest nisi prius lawyer he had ever 
known. To those who have not only listened to the resist- 
less arguments with which Logan sustained his positions, 
but have also observed the consummate skill and ever 
ready sagacity which marked his every step in the pro- 
gress of a trial, this commendation may well be regarded 
as fully deserved. 

Allusion has justly been made to the purity of his pri- 
vate life. Fame is in its value ephemeral ; but the virtue 



74 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

which forms the basis of exalted character is eternaL The 
one is subject to the limitations of time ; the other is 
immortal. This reflection is consolatory, and is applica- 
ble to the fullest extent to this honored magistrate, 
distinguished lawyer, useful citizen and pure man. His 
memory will ever be green with those who have known 
him, and, so far as human memorials can be effective to 
that end, it ought to be perpetuated for the benefit of 
those who come after us. 

The resolutions will be spread upon the records, and, 
as a further mark of respect the court will now adjourn. 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 75 



PRESS AND OTHER OBITUARY NOTICES 



OF 



Stephen T. Logan. 



THE subjoined extract from an obituary of Judge LocxAn, 
in the Illinois State Journal, July 19, 1880, is from 
the pen of one who long sustained intimate personal 
relations to the Judge, and thus had ample opportunity 
to form a correct estimate of his character and senti- 
ments : 

AS A LAWYER. 

It was in his professional character, undoubtedly, that 
Judge Logan shone preeminent. There, it may be fitly 
said, he walked the boards without a rival. There were 
great men and great lawyers who were contemporary with 
him, and whose names are usually associated with his, 
as forming the great legal lights of the earlier days of 
our State bar. With many of these it will be recognized 
that their reputations were of political rather than pro- 
fessional origin. There were none of them who did not 
willingly give the precedence to Judge Logan as a lawyer. 
It was a pecuUar fact connected with his professional 
reputation, that, although it was fully recognized by all 
classes, the unprofessional as well as the professional, 



76 MEMOIKS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

yet it was always highest with those who were the best 
judges. With the judges and lawyers it was that his 
character as a lawyer stood uppermost. Judge McLean, 
of the United States Court, and who had traveled over 
many States of the Union, holding Courts of the United 
States, said of Logan : "That he was the best nisi prius 
lawyer that ever practiced before him," and other high 
Judges have given expression to their estimate of his 
legal abilities quite as high. Mr. Lincoln, in speaking 
of the clearness and power with which Judge Logan 
could state and argue a proposition, said of him : "That 
he could make a nice distinction in the law, or upon the 
facts, more palpable to the common understanding, than 
any lawyer he ever knew." But it was that ready jDer- 
ception of the true legal principles applying to any given 
state of facts, as they might be stated to him, or as they 
might arise upon the evidence in the courts, however 
complicated these might be, and the clearness with 
which he could solve any difficulty, in the way of their 
application to the case in hand, that gave Judge Logan 
his greatest power as a lawyer. In his addresses to 
juries, he was always earnest, and sometimes vehement, 
in manner and expression, but endeavored always, if 
the nature of the case would possibly permit it, to appeal 
rather to their'understanding, than their feelings or preju- 
dices. Courts listened to him readily, because they were 
sure their time would not be consumed by the discussion 
of irrelevant matters. Perceiving readily the material 
points of his case, he would at once, without circumlocu- 
tion, proceed to discuss them. Courts were sure that time 
was not unnecessarily consumed when he addr'essed them. 

AS A MAN AND CITIZEN 

the character of Judge Logan was above reproach. By 
the industrious exercise of his high professional abilities, 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 77 



united with sound judgment, as to the investment of his 
earnings, he had many years before his death acquired 
what, according to his moderate standard, was a com- 
petency for his family. His habits of Hfe were simple 
and economical, and for himself he required but little ; 
but all the affections of his heart were centered on his 
family, and he had worked for them, not for himself. 
He had just notions, however, of life, and understood full 
well that wealth did not give happiness, and that beyond 
a mere competency to protect against the vicissitudes of 
life^ it was evil rather than good. To this end, many 
years ago, he closed active business investments and 
transactions, and with great cheerfulness began to dis- 
tribute his property to his children, reserving to himself 
enough only for his own wants. Although economical 
and careful in his business habits, he was just and liberal 
in his business engagements— a liberal landlord and an 
indulgent creditor. He was the kindest of husbands and 
the most affectionate of fathers. He lived the most of 
his hfe in his family ; denying to himself everything, to 
his family he denied nothing. 

Judge Logan was not united with any church organiza- 
tion, but he was a constant and diligent reader of the 
Bible, and had no patience, scarcely charity, for those 
who are engaged in propagating infidelity. 

In its issue of the same date, the Journal contained the 
following editorial notice of the dead jurist : 

THE LATE JUDGE STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

The Jourml of Saturday morning announced another 
breach in the ranks of the older citizens of Bpringiield, 
in the death of the Hon. Stephen T. Logan, in the 81st 
year of his age. Beginning hfe with the dawn of the 



L.clC. 



78 MEMOIKS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

present century, in a State which gave to Illinois a Lin- 
coln, a Hardin, an Edwards, and scores of its prominent 
statesmen, in a period of nearly fifty years spent in this 
State, Judge Logan had established a reputation in his 
peculiar sphere not second to any of his distinguished 
compeers. Undoubtedly, his true sphere was that of a 
successful lawyer, and in that his brilliance and excel- 
lence were recognized and conceded throughout the whole 
State. Often the assistant and colleague of Lincoln, the 
cause which they supported was certain to be presented 
in the strongest possible light. If, however, the fortunes 
of their profession placed them on opposing sides, the 
struggle was certain to be a sharp one, and it never failed 
to interest the whole community, though it never dis- 
turbed the harmonious personal relations which continued 
to subsist between these two distinguished men through- 
out their whole lives. 

Judge Logan possessed a subtle, analytic mind, which 
fitted him in an eminent degree for a profession which 
depended for its greatest successes on influencing the 
minds of others. Powerfully logical, he could, at times, 
be as powerful in pathos, as the traditions of the Sanga- 
mon County Bar abundantly prove. It was his peculiar 
fitness to shine here, no doubt, which restricted his public 
life chiefly to the domain of the forum and the halls of 
legislation, though his reputation, and the high estima- 
tion in which he was held throughout the Nation, would 
have fitted him successfully to aspire to, and fill, any 
position within the gift of the people. Endowed with 
a wiry, physical organization, in middle life he accom- 
plished what few men of his time were capable of — 
looking after an extensive and rapidly increasing practice, 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 79 

scattered over a large circuit, playing the part of editor 
of the local paper, delivering political speeches, and 
caring for his business interests. 

Politically, Judge Logan, from early training and taste, 
had strong tendencies towards conservatism. A Whig in 
his early life, on the organization of the Eepublican 
party he became identified with the latter. In 1861 he 
was, with Gen. Palmer, of this State, one of the mem- 
bers of the well-meant but unsuccessful Peace Congress. 
Like many others, he was puzzled by the question of 
Eeconstruction, precipitated upon the country at the 
close of the war, and for a time was claimed to be in har- 
mony with the Democratic party, but of late years has 
been pronounced and unswerving in his Eepublicanism. 

For several years past, having withdrawn from his 
profession on account of the advancing infirmities of age, 
Judge Logan has lived in virtual retirement, enjoying the 
respect of a large circle of friends, in the city and the 
State, with whose history he has been so closely identified 
for nearly half a century. 

The Springfield Monitor, in its issue of July 19th, pub- 
lished this generous tribute : 

THE monitor's EULOGY. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

"The purest treasure mortal times afford, 
Is spotless reputation, — that away, 
Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay." 

"Though old, he still retained, 
His manly sense and energy of mind. 
Virtuous and wise he was, but not severe, 
He still remembered that he once was young." 

It is no ordinary personage whom the people of his 
loved home in Springfield are called upon to entomb 



80 MEMOIES OF f^TEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

to day. He was a giant among the great men; a stal- 
wart amidst the intellectual. One of the remarkable men 
of his time has just closed his day in life's court. His 
name adorns history ; he has left the indelible imprint of 
his genius on the" jurisprudence of the State, and his 
name will go down to posterity as among the wisest and 
most prudent of the great minds in the list of her legis- 
lators. It is such an one for whom those he recognized 
in life as " men and brethren " are called upon to-day to 
perform the "last sad rites," as they bow in reverential 
respect around his grave. The great and loved of the 
Nation, who once loved him as a brother; jurists and 
governors, men of great worth and distinction, are buried 
in the same ground, are shadowed by the same trees, 
entombed on the same hillsides, watched and caroled 
over by the same warbling songsters of the forest ; their 
mounded resting places and rising monuments are per- 
fumed by the same fragrant flowers, fanned by the same 
gentle zephyrs floating through the shrubbery planted by 
the hand of affection, which awaits the cherished 
remains of our former fellow- citizen. But around none 
of all these will cling more fond memories, more rever- 
ence for great mental ability, than will wreath the name 
of the distinguished lawyer, wise jurist, and grand old 
citizen. Judge Stephen T. Logan, of whom it might well 
be said — 

" Low in stature, bent like a bow, 

But with an intellect reaching the heavens." 

Moral worth, intellectual strength, purity of purpose, 
and domestic goodness, gave the grand characteristics 
which distinguished Judge Logan, and blended the "iron 
armed Eichard of the bar," when among the learned in 
the law, with the devotedly loyal husband, the philan- 
thropic neighbor, true friend and citizen, knowing no 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T, LOGAN. 81 

guile or shadow of turning, when love, duty, obedience to 
law, regard for constitutional liberty and patriotic 
ipmulse, demanded his allegiance. He lies now in the 
cold embrace of the compion enemy of our race. Those 
bound to him through filial love are saddened at the 
severance, and the fountain of human affections is broken, 
up in the household but a few days since felicitous, 
because of his venerable presence. 

As sorrow palls his former home, and- the tears well up 
as the glistening tell-tales of bereavement in the portals 
of souls akin to his own by the welded links of love, his 
neighbors and friends — those who have measured swords 
with him in the legal arena, and have been connected with 
him m his long and useful career in the various relations 
of life— will wend their way to the side of his bier to 
mingle with his loved ones the. tears of sympathy, and 
console them with the exhibition which reverent respect 
entertained for their loved dead. 

No more will his eloquent voice be heard reverberating 
through the halls of justice convincingly electrifying 
judges on the bench, while riveting the attentive admira- 
tion of the members of the profession, by whom he was 
honored, and who were honored by him in return. The 
music of his voice has died away, only to be reechoed in 
memory, when his remembered forensic efforts recall 
the times when he held them spell-bound, or piloted them 
through legal channels to the solution of a vexed question 
of law, or when harmonizing conflicting evidence by his 
incontrovertible reasoning and argument, which placed 
him before them as the peer of all, excelled by none. 

His friends in life, those who loved and honored him 
for his great worth as a man, will gather to-day to lower 

—6 



82 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

his form to its earthly resting place after his work so 
well done, and 

"His days have glided o'er his head, 

Made up of innocence and love, 
And soft and silent as the shade, 

His nightly moments moved." 

His days have ended well ; he has borne the fruit of a 
well-spent life, and death had no fears for him, nor the 
grave any terrors. He recognized fully the wise economy 
of nature, which provides a rest in the grave for the 
weary casket, while the soul wings its way back to the 
God who first breathed it into man, and he became a 
living, moving intelligence. 

Judge Stephen T. Logan was a native of Franklin 
county, Kentucky, and being possessed of immense brain- 
power even in youth, was never behind, but always in the 
van when mental qualities were demanded. He was 
early in life found performing the duties of a Deputy 
Secretary of State on his native heath. He mastered 
the intricacies of the law, arose to prominence in his 
profession, and his active years were only a succession 
of brilliant achievements, which made him the master 
mind among the legal fraternity, and a jurist of exalted 
repute. His domestic qualities were preeminent. His 
home was his heaven, his wife and children the objects of 
a devoted attachment, and their wish his absorbing care 
and greatest pleasure. His public services were charac- 
terized by ability, honor and deep devotion. His eighty 
years were not wasted to the world, but as an exemplar 
in industry he labored, and labored hard, to reach the 
great aim of his life. He sinks to the grave with the 
plaudits of his countrymen. "Well done, good and 
faithful." 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 83 

The name of Stephen T. Logan is familiar to every 
prominent man in the State. The impress of his char- 
acter can be found on many of the wisest measures in 
our legislation, while his name was a household word 
among his professional brethren from the prominence of 
his name among the reports of our record of courts, and 
its ascendency in the galaxy of distinguished jurists. 
He has filled the position of legislator and judge with 
honor to himself and the State. He was respected 
wherever known for his opinions, and was the recipient 
of the distinguished honor of being called from private 
life to the council of the nation convened by the immortal 
Lincoln, when the dark cloud of war threatened to dis- 
rupt the Union. The proudest page in his life's history 
is that which records his great effort for a peaceable set- 
tlement of our troubles, rather than a resort to the 
dangerous experiment of an arbitrament by the sword. 
He was a great and good man, who preferred the private 
walks of life to the trials and turmoils and glittering 
blaze of a public career, although endowed with a mind 
which could have directed the destiny of a nation or 
encompass the most intricate question of government. 

Peace to the grand old citizen's honored ashes ! He 
hath drawn 

'"The drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 

FROM THE ILLINOIS STATE REGISTER. 

The following is an extract from the obituary notice of 
Hon. Stephen T. Logan, appearing in the daily Illinois 
State Register, July 17, 1880 : 

This old and respected citizen died shortly after one 
o'clock last night, at the advanced age of eighty-one 
years. Though his departure from this life was not 



84 MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 

unexpected, yet it filled his many friends and relatives 
in this city with the deepest grief, for he was a man who 
will be missed and never forgotten. The Register regrets 
that it is unable, owing to the lateness of the hour, to 
give the full particulars of the life of such an honored 
citizen ; but the following brief sketch will supply an out- 
line of his career. [Then followed some notice of the 
principal events of his life.] 

In its issue of the next day, the Register has this brief 
editorial article on the same subiect : 

The death of Judge S. T. Logan was properly an- 
nounced in the Register yesterday morning, and the event 
was a surprise to the public, though the age of the distin- 
guished man should have, in some degree, prepared the 
community for the event. The flags at half-mast yester- 
day on the County Court House, and on the State Capitol, 
were evidence of the decease of an ex-Representative of 
the county, and of a retired Judge of the State. Judge 
Logan was widely known and highly respected, and 
though the Register has never been in sympathy with his 
political opinions, it offers its tribute of respect to his 
memory as a good citizen, an honest man, and an upright 
Judge. 



HON. JAS. C. CONKLING S TRIBUTE. 

On the evening of the 12th of January, Hon James C. 
Conkling, of Springfield, delivered an elaborate lecture 
before the Bar Association of Chicago, on the "Early 
Bench and Bar" of Central Illinois, in which he paid the 
following graceful tribute to Judge Logan : 

One of Mr. Lincoln's most intimate friends, and a 
partner in the practice of law for some years, and one of 
the most successful lawyers of this State, was Stephen 



MEMOIKS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN, 85 

T. Logan, of Sangamon County. He came from Ken- 
tucky when 32 years of age, bringing with him a high 
reputation, and soon obtained a leading position at the 
Springfield bar, which was then, and afterwards, during 
his career, adorned by fcuch distinguished lawyers as 
Baker, Stuart, Lincoln, Douglas, McDougal, Strong, 
Hay, Edwards, Palmer, McClernand, and others. In 
1885 he was elected Circuit Judge by the Legislature, and 
after serving in that capacity about two years, he resigned 
because of the inadequacy of his salary. He was elected 
several times to the Legislature, and always took a prom- 
inent part in debate. His opinions were received with 
deference, and he exercised an extraordinary influence 
by the integrity of his character and his fan-ness in dis- 
cussion. 

He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 
184:7, and by his characteristic wisdom, prudence, and 
economy, materially assisted in the adoption of some of 
the best provisions of that Constitution. 

In 1848 he was nominated as the Whig candidate for 
Congress in his district, in opposition to Col. Thomas L, 
Harris, who had just returned from a brilliant career 
in Mexico, with his brow adorned with military laurels, 
Lincoln, Baker and Logan then constituted a triumvirate. 
and were the three political leaders in their Congressional 
District, Each was ambitious to serve his country at 
Washington City, It was understood that they would be 
candidates in rotation. Baker had been elected, and was 
occupying his seat when the war with Mexico commenced. 
Lincoln succeeded him, according to agreement. Logan, 
in his turn, became candidate, but being utterly destitute 
of those qualities which win the popular heart, and being 
opposed by a gallant soldier, who had achieved success 
in the battlefield, he was signally defeated. He was too 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 



honest in the declaration of his principles to succeed in 
political life, and would never condescend to the arts and 
chicanery by which demagogues are accustomed to 
clamber into office. 

He was appointed by Gov. Yates one of the five com- 
missioners to represent the State in the celebrated Peace 
Convention which met at Washington prior to Mr. Lin- 
coln's inauguration. His efforts there were conservative 
in character, and he pleaded powerfully for the preser- 
vation of peace. In one of his speeches he remarked : 

" Instead of dreaming of news from the seat of war, 
and of marching armies, I have thought of a country 
through which armies have marched, leaving in their 
track the desolation of a desert; I have thought of har- 
vests trampled down, of towns and villages, once the seat 
of happiness and prosperity, reduced to heaps of smoking 
ruins ; of battle-fields red with blood, which has been 
shed by those who ought to have been brothers ; of fami- 
lies broken up, or reduced to poverty ; of widowed wives, 
of orphaned children, and all the other misfortunes which 
are inseparably connected with war. This is the picture 
which presents itself to my mind every day and every 
hour. It is a picture which we are doomed soon to wit- 
ness in our country, unless we place a restraint upon our 
passions, forget our selfish interests, and do something 
to save our dountry." 

In his professional career he stood preeminent. He 
possessed the rare faculty of perceiving almost intuitively 
the strong points of a case, and the remarkable power of 
making clear and distinct to a court or a jury, the per- 
ceptions which he himself entertained. Distinctions, 
which to others would possess no difference, were recog- 
nized by the extraordinary keenness of his intellect, and 
magnified by the lucid character of his argument, until 



MEMOIRS OF STEPHEN T. LOGAN. 87 

courts and juries were convinced of the correctness of 
his views. He won many a triumph by the fairness of 
his statements and the logical precision of his speeches. 
He disdained the arts of sophistry, and appealed gener- 
ally to the understanding of his hearers, though there 
were occasions when he would indulge in the flower of 
rhetoric and attempt to move a jury by an earnest and 
impassioned eloquence. He was universally recognized 
by the bench and the bar as the great nisi prius lawyer 
of the State, and clients, who were fortunate enough to 
secure his services considered it as a sure presage of 
victory. 

He was small in stature and frail in constitution, ])ut a 
piercing, deep-set eye, and a large cranial development, 
imparted a highly intellectual appearance to his almost 
infantile features. He died at the age of 80, although I 
have heard him say, nearly forty years ago, that he did 
not expect to live beyond sixty years of age. He will 
long be remembered for his public services as a legislator, 
for his ability as a judge, and for his eminent success as 
a lawyer. 



